Iran bars Iraq PM from its airspace

By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iran refused to allow a plane carrying Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on a trip to Asia to cross its airspace overnight, a senior adviser to the Iraqi leader said on Sunday.

Sadiq al-Rikabi, who is accompanying Maliki on the trip to Japan and South Korea, said the prime minister's plane entered Iranian airspace at about 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.

"Suddenly the Iranian aviation authorities ordered the pilot to go back," Rikabi said.

"We were obliged to fly to Dubai where we stayed for more than three hours to file a new (flight) plan," he said by telephone from Bangkok, where the plane was just about to depart for Tokyo.

Rikabi said it was unclear why Iran had barred Maliki's plane from crossing its territory.

Asked about the report, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a weekly news conference in Tehran "Permission for Maliki's flight is a normal issue. All flights need permission." He gave no further details.

Iraq's U.S.-backed government has often had to tread a delicate path in trying to maintain good relations with both Iran, its neighbour to the east, and the United States.

Maliki, a Shi'ite, has not visited Iran since becoming prime minister nearly a year ago, though President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, made an official trip to Tehran in November.