Erbil, Kurdistan
Region (Iraq), October 6, -- US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice left Iraq on Friday after a delay
of more than two hours due to aircraft technical
problems, her spokesman said.
Rice had been stuck in Kurdistan (the northern
Iraqi) city of Erbil after meetings with Kurdish
officials because the plane she flew in on from
Baghdad earlier in the day had engine problems,
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"This aircraft had a problem with the engine and the
pilot and the crew made the assessment that they did
not want to use that aircraft, so they called for
backup aircraft," McCormack said.
Rice and her entourage eventually boarded the second
aircraft and were headed toward a US air base in
Incirlik in Turkey, where her official plane is
parked.
From Incirlik she was due to head for London, where
she was to arrive around 1700 GMT to attend a
meeting of six major powers on whether to urge the
United Nations to slap sanctions on Iran over its
suspect nuclear programme, McCormack said. |
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, second
from right, is greeted by the Prime Minister of the
Kurdistan's region (Iraq), Nechirvan Barzani, at
Erbil International Airport in Erbil, Friday, Oct.
6, 2006
photo: AP |
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