JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: The Iraqi government says despite U.S. pressure to continue sanctions, the growing number of airplane flights to Baghdad is a sign the 10-year-old embargo is crumbling. On Friday, the deputy prime minister of Yemen flew into Iraq with a U.N.- approved planeload of humanitarian aid. CNN's Jane Arraf reports from Baghdad.</s>JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Baghdad has been cut off from regular international flights for 10 years. It says the recent spate of flights from France, Russia and Jordan is the beginning of the end of sanctions.</s>TARIQ AZIZ, IRAQ DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: The sanctions have been imposed for reasons which do not exist anymore. And it's time to lift those sanctions. Only American arrogance and American blackmail on governments are keeping the sanctions.</s>ARRAF: But flying to Iraq is still a tricky business. A private plane, which was to have arrived from France, was still grounded Friday after failing to get clearance from other countries. The U.S. has said it's concerned about the increase in flights, and like France and Russia, it considers the U.N. sanctions to include a flight ban. Apart from the political benefits, the flights have helped buoy the Iraqi dinar. It's still worth a small fraction of its value before the Gulf War, but after Baghdad announced last week it would abandon the U.S. dollar in trade with other countries, the dinar rose and kept rising with the announcement of more flights. (on camera): These flights don't mean that sanctions are going away or even being eased -- that's still a much bigger issue related to weapons inspections -- but they do provide some hope to Iraqis desperate for anything on the horizon. Jane Arraf, CNN, Baghdad.
Iraq Declares U.N. Sanctions to be Crumbling