Iraq Says It Can’t Halt Arms to Syria
[Editor: It is mainly a war between Shi'ia and Sunnis or a battle of power between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Now N Y Times has started to define it in terms of Shi'ia-Sunni conflict, after hiding the truth for so long. This blog however had dissected the war in this way long back. Anyway, now the question is why would Iraq want, Israel to be made more powerful in the middle-east? Therefore, it will never stop any arms that are supplied to Syria. The rest are all media stories for public consumption]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Iraq is unable to stop its neighbor Iran from transferring weapons to Syria through its airspace, Iraq’s foreign minister said in a newspaper interview published Saturday.
“We reject and condemn the transfer of weapons through our airspace, and we will inform the Iranian side of that formally,” Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al Awsat. “But we do not have the ability to stop it.”
Iran supports President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who is fighting a mainly Sunni opposition in a civil war that has killed at least 93,000 people, according to the United Nations.
The United States, which wants Mr. Assad to give up power, has warned Iraq not to allow Iranian weapons flights to cross its airspace into Syria. But Mr. Zebari said he had told Western countries that if they wanted to stop such flights, they had to help do so themselves.
“If you imagine these flights breach United Nations Security Council resolutions banning weapons imports and exports from Iran,” he said, “I invite you in the name of the government to help us stop these flights across Iraqi airspace.”
He said random checks by Iraq on Iranian aircraft bound for Syria since September had found only nonlethal aid like medicines and food.
Iraq is dominated by Shiite Muslim parties with close ties to Iran, but Mr. Zebari said his country was committed to neutrality with respect to Syria.
Iraq does not provide any weapons or money to Syria, Mr. Zebari said, and, despite requests from Syria, does not sell it crude oil at preferential rates.
“We reject and condemn the transfer of weapons through our airspace, and we will inform the Iranian side of that formally,” Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al Awsat. “But we do not have the ability to stop it.”
Iran supports President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who is fighting a mainly Sunni opposition in a civil war that has killed at least 93,000 people, according to the United Nations.
The United States, which wants Mr. Assad to give up power, has warned Iraq not to allow Iranian weapons flights to cross its airspace into Syria. But Mr. Zebari said he had told Western countries that if they wanted to stop such flights, they had to help do so themselves.
“If you imagine these flights breach United Nations Security Council resolutions banning weapons imports and exports from Iran,” he said, “I invite you in the name of the government to help us stop these flights across Iraqi airspace.”
He said random checks by Iraq on Iranian aircraft bound for Syria since September had found only nonlethal aid like medicines and food.
Iraq is dominated by Shiite Muslim parties with close ties to Iran, but Mr. Zebari said his country was committed to neutrality with respect to Syria.
Iraq does not provide any weapons or money to Syria, Mr. Zebari said, and, despite requests from Syria, does not sell it crude oil at preferential rates.
Courtesy: N Y Times
