Iraq wants planes back from Iran (Reuter)
January 2nd, 2009 From
>Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 11:45:45 -0700
>From: Mike Potter
>Organization: Artecon, Inc.
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>Subject: Iraq wants planes back from Iran (Reuter)
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>Iraq wants planes back from Iran
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>Copyright © 1997 Reuter Information Service
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>UNITED NATIONS (September 22, 1997 1:09 p.m. EDT) – Iraq has asked the
>United Nations to help secure the return of more than 140 Iraqi aircraft
>flown to Iran for safekeeping during the Persian Gulf war, saying Iran
>was now making use of the planes.
>
>In a letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan circulated Monday, Iraqi
>Foreign Minister Mohammed Said Al-Sahaf protested “in the strongest
>terms against the use made by the Iranian government of property that
>does not belong to it.”
>
>”The Iranian authorities have repainted the 115 military aircraft and
>integrated them into Iranian air force formations, and the 27 Iraqi
>civil transport aircraft have been distributed to the Iranian civil
>aviation company and the transport command of the Iranian air force for
>use in internal transport operations,” he said.
>
>Al-Sahaf did not specifically refer to the circumstances in which the
>planes were flown to Iran to safeguard them from attack by the United
>States-led Gulf War coalition, but he said they had been “entrusted” to
>Iran, with its agreement, in 1991.
>
>He called Iran’s action in using the planes for its own purposes a
>”grave breach of the most elementary principles and norms of
>international law.”
>
>Iraq reserved the right to claim restitution for any damage to the
>aircraft, he said.
>
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