AP: Turkey’s government says a cargo plane from Iran has been required to land in Turkey so its shipment could be searched.
The Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s government says a cargo plane from Iran has been required to land in Turkey so its shipment could be searched.
But the Foreign Ministry denied a Dogan news agency report that Turkish military jets forced the plane to land at Diyarbakir airport on Tuesday night to search it for an alleged cargo of arms from Iran to Syria.
The ministry says it is standard procedure for Iranian cargo planes to request permission to fly over Turkey and sometimes be required to make unscheduled landings to be searched.
Turkey’s official Anatolia news agency confirmed that the plane, heading from Tehran to Aleppo, Syria, was searched Wednesday.
But Anatolia and the government did not say what the cargo plane was found to be carrying.