IRBIL: Iraq has extended by three months a ban on international flights to the autonomous Kurdish region, a senior official at Irbil airport in the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan said on Monday.
The federal government in Baghdad first imposed the air blockade in September after Iraqi Kurdistan voted overwhelmingly for independence in a non-binding referendum rejected as illegal by the central government.
It was extended in December for two months and was to run until Feb. 28 but the authorities decided to renew it for three months, the official said.
“We have been informed by the Civil Aviation Authority in Baghdad that the ban on international flights to and from Irbil and Sulaimaniyah airports has been extended until the end of May,” he said. “Only internal flights are authorized.”
A spokesman for Prime Minister Haider Abadi’s office confirmed the ban was extended.
“No date had been set to lift the ban,” Saad Al-Hadithi told AFP. “It will depend on the transfer of the airport’s administration to the federal government and when that will be done the ban will be lifted,” he added.
According to Hadithi, “progress” has been made during negotiations involving Kurdish and federal government officials on several issues, including customs, passports and visas.
“But the issue of the control of security at the airports has not been solved yet, although there is a will to reach a solution to this problem,” he added.
Before the controversial September vote on independence, the authorities in Kurdistan were in charge of all these issues but after the poll that angered Baghdad, the federal government demanded to take control.
Since the flight ban went into force, all Kurdistan-bound international flights have been rerouted to Baghdad, which has also imposed entry visas to foreigners wishing to visit the Kurdish region.
The flight ban was part of a battery of penalties inflicted on the Kurds as Baghdad sought to nullify the poll, with federal forces also seizing disputed oil-rich regions.
Iraq extends air blockade of Kurdistan by 3 months
Iraq extends air blockade of Kurdistan by 3 months
The art of war: fears for masterpieces on loan to Louvre Abu Dhabi
- UAE paid more than €1 billion to borrow priceless works, but experts in France want them back
PARIS: The Middle East war has raised fears for the safety of priceless masterpieces on loan from France to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the museum’s only foreign branch.
The Abu Dhabi museum, which opened in 2017, has so far escaped damage from nearly 1,800 Iranian drone and missile strikes launched since the conflict erupted on Feb. 28.
However, concerns are mounting in France. “The works must be removed,” said Didier Selles, who helped broker the original agreement between France and the UAE.
French journal La Tribune de l’Art echoed that alarm. “The Louvre’s works in Abu Dhabi must be secured!” it said.
France’s culture ministry said French authorities were “in close and regular contact with the authorities of the UAE to ensure the protection of the works loaned by France.”
Under the agreement with the UAE, France agreed to provide expertise, lend works of art and organize exhibitions, in return for €1 billion, including €400 million for licensing the use of the Louvre name. The deal was extended in 2021 to 2047 for an additional €165 million.
Works on loan include paintings by Rembrandt and Chardin, Classical statues of Isis, Roman sarcophagi and Islamic masterpieces: such as the Pyxis of Al-Mughira.
A Louvre Abu Dhabi source said the museum was designed to protect collections from both security threats and natural disasters.
