DUBAI - An Iraqi plane carrying 104 Muslim pilgrims to the hajj pilgrimage in defiance of a United Nations air embargo on Baghdad landed at Jeddah airport in Saudi Arabia yesterday. Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef said the Iraqi plane was allowed to enter the kingdom after authorities were told it carried Iraqi pilgrims.
The UN imposed sanctions on Iraq following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which led Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states to sever ties with Baghdad.
It was the second pilgrim plane the kingdom has allowed to land this year. A Libyan plane carrying pilgrims landed in Jeddah on March 29th. It was the third such flight since 1995 by Libya in defiance of UN sanctions connected with the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Diplomats in the kingdom say Saudi Arabia, as custodian of Islam's two holiest shrines, cannot be seen to deny any Muslim with a valid hajj visa the right to perform the pilgrimage, which reaches a climax this year next Wednesday.