Iran still holding Russian aid for Iraq

Iran says it will allow a cargo of Russian humanitarian aid intended for Iraq to be delivered by road if it receives permission from the United Nations.

Iranian media reports said the plane-load of supplies was presently in the city of Kermanshah, near the Iraqi border.

The aircraft had been chartered by the party of the Russian nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, which said it had landed in Iran on Monday after being denied permission to fly to Iraq.

Earlier, Iraq said Iran prevented the plane from delivering the supplies to Baghdad. A spokesman said the Iranian authorities had stopped it entering Iraqi airspace from Iran.

Iraq has been under United Nations sanctions since it invaded Kuwait in 1990, and aircraft need UN authorisation to land there.

Iraq complains that the sanctions have left its people hungry and ill.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service