Two days later, Baghdad said it had inspected its first Iranian plane and found no arms. Nasser Bandar, head of the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority, said, “This afternoon, our specialists and security elements checked an Iranian plane heading to Damascus. They found nothing violating the ban on transferring weapons to Syria,” he said, and the plane was allowed to fly off to Damascus.
American officials have been saying publicly that some of the planes are carrying arms from Iran to Syria. Some members of Congress have proposed that further US aid for the Iraqi military be made contingent on Iraq blocking any further flights.
Iraq has just brushed aside the American and Arab complaints for weeks. But Sunday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told the London-based al-Hayat Arabic newspaper that Baghdad had changed its policy.
“We have informed Mrs. Clinton [US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton] and US officials that the government plans to bring planes down and conduct random inspections,” Zebari said in the interview.
He gave no indication how many planes Baghdad would inspect. Nor did he make clear whether Baghdad would warn Iran in advance that a particular plane would be required to land for an inspection.
Iraq had earlier said it would never allow any arms to pass through its airspace to either side in the conflict. But it took no action to check planes that have been passing over Iraq every few days since July.
Most Arab nations support the opposition to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and many are publicly demanding that Assad go. But Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has opposed demands by Sunni Arab states that Assad step down.
Increasingly, Sunni Arabs see Maliki’s Shia government allied with Shia Iran to save the ruling clan of Alawites, a version of Shiism, in Syria. More and more, the civil war takes on aspects of sectarianism.
Zebari said US officials had said any flights carrying weapons to Syria would break UN Security Council resolutions, and demanded Iraq stop them. Washington had provided no specific intelligence of arms on particular flights, he said.
Iranian flights over Iraq began in March and stopped after Iraq asked that they be halted, the minister told the newspaper.
“They resumed again toward the end of July,” after the huge explosion at Syrian military headquarters that killed four prominent Syrian officials. Iran told Iraq “these flights contain no weapons or hardware; they transport pilgrims, visitors and so on. But to verify their shipments, we will ask these planes to land,” he said.
Iran go can no longer fly planes over Turkey to Syria, as it once did. If it is stopped from using Iraqi airspace, it would have to fly a long and circuitous route over Armenia, Georgia, the Black Sea, Bulgaria and Greece to reach Turkey Syria. It isn’t clear whether Bulgaria and Greece, both NATO members, would agree.
If Iran cannot supply Assad by air, it would have to go by sea. Since its civilian ships are subject to inspection, it would have to use naval vessels. Earlier this year, Iran twice sent navy ships to Syria and Western countries suspect they were used to deliver arms to Syria.
In New York two days before Zebari’s announcement, Clinton told a meeting of countries opposed to Assad, “There is no longer any doubt that Tehran will do whatever it takes to protect its proxy and crony in Damascus. The regime’s most important lifeline is Iran. Iran will do everything it can to evade international sanctions [on Syria].”
In other developments this week involving Iran and Syria:
• A Syrian journalist working for Iran’s English-language PressTV and the Fars news agency was shot and killed last Wednesday. Fars said he was shot by a sniper while doing a live broadcast from in front of Syrian Army Headquarters. Maya Nasser was 33.
• Three Iranian truck drivers who were kidnaped by opposition groups in Syria May 21 were freed and returned home last Thursday. The Fars news agency said they were freed in a military action launched by Syria troops against rebels. Another 48 Iranians taken captive from a bus August 4 remain in captivity. The Syrian rebels say at least some of them are Pasdar officers. Iran says they are all pilgrims visiting religious sites.
• Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at Iran, Russia and China last Thursday for their support of the Syrian government, saying they are to blame for the continuing bloodshed in the country. “The main source of disappointment is Russia,” he said. “It stands by the massacres…. China stands by Russia. And, although [Chinese President] Hu Jintao had told me they wouldn’t veto the plan [in the Security Council for a safe zone in Syria] for the third time, they did.” As for Iran’s position, it is “impossible to understand.”
• At the UN, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi canceled a planned meeting of four regional powers to seek a solution in Syria. The four powers are Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Turkey’s Cihan News Agency said the meeting was canceled because Turkey’s prime minister was not available tin New York to meet with the others.
• Major General Hassan Firuzabadi, the highest ranking officer in the Iranian military as the chairman of the Joint Staff, said American meddling in Syria would only make Muslims more unified in defending Islam. A more common interpretation within the Arab world is that Iranian intervention in Syria has made Arabs more unified to protect Sunnis against a perceived Shia assault. Firuzabadi also accused Washington of joining hands with Al-Qaeda in Syria.