Gerald Butt/NICOSIA
Air links between Iran and Syria will be faster following a decision by the Iranian Government to allow flights from Tehran to Damascus to pass through Iraqi airspace.
During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, aircraft operating the Tehran-Damascus service were routed northwestwards through Turkish airspace to avoid Iraq.
The practice continued in the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the imposition of United Nations sanctions on Baghdad.
Iran's Transport Minister Mahmud Hojjati says his government is dropping the ban on movements through Iraqi airspace to improve the efficiency of the air service to Syria which is popular with pilgrims visiting a Shiite Muslim shrine near Damascus. The minister also says that Iran was keen to develop relations once more with Iraq - particularly in the field of transport.
The Iraqi Government will welcome the Iranian decision as a further sign of the erosion of the economic embargo covering flights in to and out of the country. Last April, an Italian aircraft flew into Baghdad without UN authorisation and in August a Russian aircraft carrying an official delegation from Moscow broke sanctions in the same way (Flight International 29 August- 4 September).
Last month, a French aircraft arrived in Baghdad without UN permission. Since then aircraft of Jordan, Yemen, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria have defied the flight ban.
Source: Flight International