British Reject Jet Swap With Iraq

The British government Saturday rejected an Iraqi offer to trade a captured British Airways jumbo jet for engines and spare parts.

“There is a whole raft of sanctions in place, so any trade with Iraq is out of the question--and that includes this suggested exchange,” a British Foreign Office spokesman said.

Iraqi Airways chief Nouredine Safi was quoted in Saturday’s Iraqi Defense Ministry newspaper, Al Qadisiya, as saying the plane cannot leave “before engines for Iraqi Airways planes and other technical equipment in Britain are returned to us.”

The Boeing 747 being held was the last plane to land at Kuwait airport before the Iraqi invasion of the emirate on Aug. 2.

Many of the estimated 350 passengers found themselves caught up in the crisis and held captive as “human shields” to deter an attack by U.S.-led forces.