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French block airlift of British troops to Basra
Itâs too easy:The French government has told an airline that it is not to ferry British troops to Basra, a ban that will be seen as reflecting Parisâs opposition to the occupation of Iraq. Ya think? Corsair, which has been chartered numerous times to transport UK forces around the world, pulled out of a contract to fly reinforcements to Basra at the weekend. A Corsair Airbus A330 was chartered to fly troops of the Royal Green Jackets from Brize Norton, Oxon, but at the last moment the French transport ministry grounded the aircraft citing safety concerns. Transport ministry officials were reported yesterday as saying the move had nothing to do with safety but was a result of the intervention of the foreign ministry. Oops, somebody spilled the beans. The foreign ministry denied the report, saying there was "no political motive". But British defence officials appeared to confirm that the ban was political and not technical. "We have used them time and time again to fly troops into trouble spots," one said. "They have been everywhere for us. We always thought they were pretty robust." "For the French, that is." A Corsair spokesman said most of the flights undertaken for the MoD took troops to training exercises. For security and insurance reasons they rarely flew to war zones. "Weâre French, we donât do wars." "We did fly to Pristina during the Kosovo crisis, but only once it had been cleared for civil aviation." Basra is already open to civilian aircraft. Hey Tony, sure you still want to join the EU? Posted by: Steve 2003-09-16 |
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