Iraq: Flight restrictions lifted

The head of the UN committee that monitors sanctions against Iraq announced that restrictions on flights to the country that have been in place since 1990 “are no longer valid”.

Germany’s UN Ambassador Gunter Pleuger, who chairs the committee, said in a brief statement that the ban on flights without the committee’s prior approval was not necessary in light of the Security Council’s decision last week to lift all non-military sanctions on Iraq.

The council imposed sanctions after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. It voted overwhelmingly to end all sanctions except an arms embargo on Iraq.