Baghdad: ‘We suspected Syrian FM was ferrying weapons to Iran’
Iraqi deputy prime minister says Walid Muallem’s flight to Tehran was delayed midair over concerns that arms were aboard
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleIlan Ben Zion is an AFP reporter and a former news editor at The Times of Israel.
Baghdad delayed the flight of Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem en route to Iran on suspicion that it was ferrying military equipment, Israel Radio reported on Monday.
Iraqi airport authorities did not automatically approve Muallem’s plane’s passage through Iraqi airspace and asked the pilot to specify its destination until the authorities received government clearance, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Hussain Shahristani told the press.
Shahristani emphasized that his country will prevent Syria and Iran from using “Iraqi airspace or Iraqi territory for the transfer of any military equipment or anything that can aggravate the crisis and the escalation of violence in Syria.”
Though he did not specify when the incident occurred, Muallem paid a state visit to Tehran at the end of July in which he blamed Israel, Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia for the Syrian civil war.
The Times of Israel Community.