Arabs back Iraq flights

The Russian delegation included a medical team

By Frank Gardner in Cairo

Much of the Arab world has reacted to the recent French and Russian flights to Baghdad with calls for an end to the air embargo on Iraq.

On Sunday, newspapers in the Gulf Arab states urged Arab countries to resume flights to Iraq, a call echoed by a pan-Arab Labour organisation in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Ordinary Iraqis have been hard hit by the sanctions

In a rare sign of unity, Baghdad and some of the Gulf Arab states are speaking with one voice. It is time, they believe, for the Arab world to resume flights to Iraq.

On Sunday, government-influenced newspapers in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates said the recent arrival of French and Russian planes in Baghdad gave a green light to other countries to follow suit.

Tough stance

The Qatari paper, Al-Watan, said it was time for Arab countries to take the initiative in breaking the 10-year air embargo on Iraq.

Another Qatari paper pointed out that, with Europeans now flying direct to Baghdad, the Arab world risked losing out on some lucrative contracts.

France, too, has defied the air embargo

Bahrain and Oman hold similar views, but Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are maintaining a tough stance on Iraq - a position that is growing increasingly unfashionable.

On Sunday, the Saudi paper, Al-Bilad, said breaking the air embargo would undermine Kuwait's calls for the return of its alleged prisoners from Iraq.

For Arabs across the Middle East, these are confusing times.

For 10 years, they have dutifully abided by UN sanctions on Iraq, only to see the air embargo broken by members of the UN Security Council.

With planes taking off from Paris and Moscow for Baghdad's newly re-opened airport, the floodgates now appear to have been opened.

The UK and the US may strongly disapprove, but their calls for order resemble those of a schoolmaster after the bell for lunch has sounded.