The first flight from Ireland to Iraq since the Gulf War left Dublin Airport yesterday with humanitarian aid.
Mr Niall Andrews MEP was on board the light aircraft, loaded with medicines and food, which was to travel through the Iraqi no-fly zone. The zone was imposed by the UN as part of sanctions after the war.
Mr Andrews said the trip to Baghdad was a symbolic one in solidarity with 22 million Iraqis who have suffered under the sanctions imposed in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Information from the International Red Cross showed that infant mortality had doubled in Iraq since the war, unemployment had risen to 60 per cent, a third of children were malnourished and 500,000 children had died since 1990.
"This is a humanitarian mission, but the underlying political message is that new structures and a new accommodation must be put in place before the human suffering in Iraq reaches even more calamitous heights," he added.
Baghdad's Saddam International Airport reopened last August, and many Arab countries as well as Russia and France have dispatched aircraft to test the UN embargo, arguing that it does not cover humanitarian aid.
Mr Andrews said the flight which left Dublin yesterday was important because there was a moral obligation to send a strong message of solidarity.
"It is the most vulnerable in Iraqi society who have been hit most in recent years," he said.
He said he had complied with the legal requirement to give the UN Sanctions Committee on Iraq 48 hours' notice of his intention to oversee the flight. It is understood that both flight and supplies were funded by an Irish businessman.
Four other aircraft touched down in Baghdad yesterday, bringing delegates from Russia, Lebanon and Turkey for the Baghdad Trade Fair, the official INA news agency said. Iraq has attracted record participation for the fair, with 1,554 companies from 45 countries taking part.