Iraqi aviation officials have grounded and inspected another Iranian cargo plane heading to Syria, finding humanitarian goods on the aircraft en route to the crisis-hit country, a senior Iraqi official says.
Nasser Bandar, the head of Iraq’s civil aviation authority said that the Iraqi aviation officials ordered a Mahan Air cargo flight to land in Baghdad on Wednesday evening.
“It complied with the request, and we searched the plane,” he said, adding, “We did not find any prohibited items.”
It is a third inspection in three days and the Islamic Republic has officially protested to Baghdad.
On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast described the inspections as “unacceptable” and as part of “an Iranophobia project sponsored by the United States, the Zionist regime (Israel) and certain regional countries.”
Mehmanparast said Iran will continue its relief operations in Syria despite the inspections.
Iraq has been inspecting Iran’s cargo planes at the request of the US officials, who claimed that Tehran uses Iraq’s airspace to send weapons to the Syrian government. The Iranian planes, however, carry only humanitarian goods.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 and many people, including a large number of security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and certain Western states and their regional allies such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, have been trying to fuel the turmoil.
