The Peninsula – Source: AFP – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki’s arrival in Tokyo was delayed yesterday amid reports that Iran had refused to allow his plane to fly through its airspace, a Japanese official said.
Maliki had been scheduled to arrive early afternoon yesterday at the start of his first tour to Japan and South Korea.
"We are informed by Iraqi authorities that his arrival will be delayed considerably although he is still en route to Japan," a Japanese foreign ministry official said. Maliki later arrived in Tokyo half-a-day late.
"We have not been given any reason for the delay, although we received unconfirmed information that his flight was unexpectedly diverted to Dubai because Iran refused to allow the airplane to fly over the country."
Iran said that all flights over its territory required prior permission but stopped short of confirming it had barred Maliki’s jet.
"It is a technical question and for all the flights there has to be a request to obtain authorisation," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in Tehran.
Iran, which fought a bloody 1980-88 war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, supports the US-backed government of Maliki, a member of the country’s Shi’ite majority.
But Shi’ite-dominated Iran and the United States have been at loggerheads over Washington’s charges that Tehran is abetting the Iraqi insurgency. In January, US forces arrested five Iranians in the northern city of Arbil.
