Mashhadani flies to Tehran aboard Iranian plane

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s parliament speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, left on Tuesday for Tehran aboard an aircraft sent by the Iranian side, an Iraqi legislator revealed. “Mashhadani flew to Tehran at 9:00 a.m. today aboard a plane sent by the Iranian side to avoid problems that occurred on Monday,” the Iraqi lawmaker, who preferred not to be named, told IraqiNews.com. Iranian ambassador in Iraq Hassan Kadhemi Qomi had offered an official apology to Mashhadani on Monday for the “technical reasons” behind Iran’s refusing permission to let his plane land in Khomeini Airport in Tehran. Mashhadani headed back home to Baghdad and postponed his scheduled official visit to Iran. Iran insisted that Mashhadani was still welcome to visit. The spokesman of the Iranian parliament’s presiding board, Mohsen Kouhkan, said that the aircraft had not been turned away because of any objections to Mashhadani’s planned visit. “The reason that permission to land was not given to the aircraft carrying Mashhadani was the type of the plane,” Kouhkan told the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). “It had nothing to do with him.” His comments were echoed by the chairman of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi. “There has been no particular problem with Mr. Mashhadani’s trip to Tehran. It was a technical problem and the invitation from (Iranian parliament speaker Ali) Larijani for this trip to Tehran still stands,” Boroujerdi told the Iranian Fars news agency. “The pilot of Mr. Mashhadani’s plane was not sufficiently informed and there was miscoordination in the beginning and necessary coordination was not made for the entry of Mr. Mashhadani’s plane to Tehran.” AmR (S) 1