France sells 24 military helicopters to Iraq

Iraq-France BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: France sealed a contract for the sale of 24 military helicopters to Iraq, its first arms deal with Baghdad since 1990, AFP reported on Thursday. “French Defense Minister Herve Morin signed the deal worth 360 million Euros (488 million dollars) for the Eurocopter EC 635s during a meeting in Paris with his Iraqi counterpart Abdul Qader Obeidi,” the French agency said. “France agreed to provide pilot training and maintenance as part of the contract.” The deal came one month after President Nicolas Sarkozy paid a historic first visit to Baghdad during which he vowed France would help Iraq’s economic revival, and singled out defense as one area of cooperation. A defensce ministry official said the deal was the first contract signed between Paris and Baghdad since the 1990 Gulf War and the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Morin also announced that Paris was going to “re-open a military mission to Baghdad” at the French embassy in Baghdad “from this summer.” “We want to return to the relations that France had (with Iraq) up until the 1980s,” he said. “Then a large part of the Iraqi army was trained in France and equipped with French military equipment,” he added. Obeidi said the purchase of the helicopters was one of the Iraqi government’s priorities. He said he had had discussions about other projects with “big French companies,” but did not elaborate. Such deals, he said, would reinforce the “independence” of his country and “facilitate the agreement with the United States on the withdrawal of American forces.” Asked about France sending instructors to Iraq, Morin said France was “open to all forms of cooperation” but that it was for the “government of Iraq to express its wishes.” Sarkozy’s surprise visit to Iraq last month was the first ever to the country by a French head of state. SH (S)/SR 1