{"id":7088,"date":"2019-02-16T15:37:08","date_gmt":"2019-02-16T15:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shiawaves.com\/english\/news\/islam\/7088-india-resumes-flights-to-iraq-after-30-year-gap\/"},"modified":"2019-02-16T15:37:08","modified_gmt":"2019-02-16T15:37:08","slug":"india-resumes-flights-to-iraq-after-30-year-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shiawaves.com\/english\/news\/islam\/7088-india-resumes-flights-to-iraq-after-30-year-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"India resumes flights to Iraq after 30 year gap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Air India resumed flights to Iraq on Thursday after a 30 year gap, when a plane carrying Shia pilgrims landed in the city of Najaf.<\/p>\n<p>  <!--more-->  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<h4>\u00a0<\/h4>\n<h4>Air India resumed flights to Iraq on Thursday after a 30 year gap, when a plane carrying Shia pilgrims landed in the city of Najaf.<\/h4>\n<h4>&#8220;This is the first time in the last 30 years&#8221; that a plane has come from India to Iraq, said Pradeep Singh Rajpurohit, India&#8217;s ambassador to Iraq, at the international airport that serves the Shia holy city of Najaf.<\/h4>\n<h4>&#8220;We are very fortunate that the holy city of Najaf has been chosen as the first destination&#8221;, he added, noting that attempts to restore direct air links had been ongoing for some time.<\/h4>\n<h4>Flights had been prevented by years of conflict in Iraq and sanctions against Saddam Hussein&#8217;s regime after his invasion of Kuwait, as well as by the extended chaos that came in the wake of the former dictator&#8217;s 2003 downfall.<\/h4>\n<h4>The plane started its journey in Lucknow, the capital of India&#8217;s Uttar Pradesh state, and upon landing the crew and pilgrims were welcomed by Iraqi officials in addition to a number of clerics.<\/h4>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Air India resumed flights to Iraq on Thursday after a 30 year gap, when a plane carrying Shia pilgrims landed in the city of Najaf. \u00a0 Air India resumed flights to Iraq on Thursday after a 30 year gap, when a plane carrying Shia pilgrims landed in the city of Najaf. &#8220;This is the first &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[456,37,49,245],"class_list":["post-7088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islam","tag-airport","tag-india","tag-najaf","tag-pilgrims"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.3 - 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