Mashhadani’s plane reportedly denied landing in Tehran airport

TEHRAN / IraqiNews.com: Iranian defense forces denied access to Iraqi parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani to land in Tehran Airport, according to a source close to the Iraqi delegation led by Mashahadani. “The plane was not allowed to land at Imam Khomeini Airport in the Iranian capital Tehran,” the source told IraqiNews.com. Earlier in the day, a media source in the Iraqi parliament told VOI Mashhadani left for Tehran leading a parliamentary delegation on a one-day official visit to Iran, scheduled later to leave for Syria to attend the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union (AIPU). “Mashhadani left Baghdad today for the Iranian capital Tehran on a one-day visit,” the source said. The speaker’s office media chief, Jabbar al-Mashhadani, had said on Sunday that the chief Iraqi parliamentarian is leading a delegation for talks with the Iranian Majlis (parliament) Speaker Ali Ardashir Larijani, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, chief of the Expediency Council of Iran Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and head of the Judicial System of Iran Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi. “The speaker will then head for the Syrian capital Damascus to attend the AIPU meetings to prepare an Arab parliamentary working paper to be forwarded during the 119 th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly meetings, scheduled to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, on October 13-15.   AmR (S) 1