Report: Maliki plane refused permission to cross Iranian airspace on trip to Japan, flight diverted, delayed

Prime Minister Maliki met with Iranian President Ahmadinejad in Tehran in September of last year

Iran refused to allow the Iraqi prime minister to fly across its airspace as he was flying to Tokyo, members of the delegation traveling with Nouri al-Maliki told The Associated Press early Sunday.

The delegation members said al-Maliki's plane was diverted to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where al-Maliki stayed in the airport for more than three hours while his government aircraft was refueled and a new flight plan was filed...

All three informants said the Iranians told al-Maliki's pilot that they were not informed in advance of the prime minister's need to cross Iran by air. None of the three had any information on whether that was true or an Iranian action designed to inconvenience and embarrass al-Maliki.

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune