Posted on 01/08/2002 3:29:33 AM PST by kattracks
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BAGHDAD, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Iraq's foreign minister is to visit Tehran to discuss the return of Iraqi aircraft grounded in Iran since the Gulf War, a local newspaper said on Tuesday. The weekly al-Rafidain, owned by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday, said Foreign Minister Naji Sabri would visit Tehran at the end of the month. "He will discuss the return of Iraqi civilian and military aircraft grounded in Iran since 1991," the paper quoted a source at the Iraqi Transport Ministry as saying. In 1991, Iraq said some 140 Iraqi warplanes and civilian planes were moved to Iran to escape U.S.-led bombing. At the time, Iran said only 22 Iraqi planes had landed and it would not give them back without the approval of the U.N. Security Council. The newspaper said a Transport Ministry delegation would accompany Sabri to discuss a railway line between Baghdad and Tehran. Sabri was also expected to discuss prisoners of the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war and soldiers missing in action -- key issues blocking the normalisation of ties, which have improved in recent years. Up to one million Iraqis and Iranians were killed in the war, which ended when Iran accepted a U.N.-sponsored ceasefire in August 1988. ((Baghdad Newsroom ++ 9641 5433710))
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| © Reuters Limited. |
Oh Fellas, can we have those fighter aircraft back? Thanks.. Hey what the hell??? Look at these odometers - where did all these miles come from??
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