BAGHDAD — Iraqi officials have discovered that they may have an air force, after all.The Defense Ministry revealed Sunday that it recently learned that Iraq owns 19 Russian-designed MIG-21 and MIG-23 jet fighters, which are in storage in Serbia. The ministry said Iraqi officials are negotiating with the Serbs to restore the aircraft.
The Serbian government has tentatively promised to make two of the aircraft available “for immediate use,” according to a press release from the ministry. The rest would be restored on a rush basis, the ministry said.An Iraqi delegation went to Serbia as part of aneffort by the government to locate funds stashed abroad by Saddam Hussein to evade sanctions first imposed during the 1990’s. Serbia had had friendly relations with Mr. Hussein.
During that visit, the Iraqi officials discovered that Mr. Hussein had sent the 19 jet fighters to Serbia for repairs in the 1980’s, during the Iran-Iraq war, but was unable to bring them back after sanctions had been imposed on his country.
Iraq immediately sent a technical delegation, including air force chief Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin. The web site of the Iraqi Supreme Islamic Council, the leading Shia political party, quoted Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari as saying that the aircraft had been sent in 1989 “for maintenance and everything was paid for by Iraq’s money.”
More to the point there was a time when many of the fashionable wrote Iraq off, the fact that they can even consider reforming the airforce should tell you how much things have changed.
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