Iraq orders search of Iranian cargo plane heading to Syria

Iraq ordered the search of an Iranian cargo plane that is heading to Syria, AFP reported on Tuesday.

Despite U.S. and Western calls for Iraq to inspect Iranian aircraft passing through its airspace en route to Syria, a government spokesman said it’s not possible to inspect every aircraft.

Iran is suspected of supplying weapons to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.

While each aircraft is “subject to random inspections,” Iraq could not inspect every airplane, a spokesman for Iraq’s Ministry of Transport said on Tuesday.

“We adopt a mechanism whereby random inspections are carried out for suspicious flights,” the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat quoted spokesman Karim Nouri.