Iraq bans non-Iraqi Arabs from entering the country until elections

Iraq's Interior Ministry has banned all non-Iraqi Arabs from entering the country until further notice as part of security measures for the Dec. 15 general elections, officials said Friday. The decision was taken Tuesday by Interior Minister Bayn Jabr, said two senior Interior Ministry officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

On Friday, Royal Jordanian prevented an Associated Press correspondent of Egyptian nationality from boarding a plane leaving to Baghdad. Royal Jordanian officials said they had orders from Iraqi authorities not to allow Arabs on the plane. "This step is part of the security measures taken for the elections," said one of the senior Interior Ministry officials. "It covers all border points whether airports, land border crossings and ports."

He said the ban was open-ended. Another senior official said the ban will continue until Dec. 17, two days after the elections. Both officials said there would be no exceptions. Iraq took strict security measures for the landmark Jan. 30 general elections and the Oct. 15 referendum on the new constitution. Those measures included a three-day closure of all border points. But this is the first time Arabs have been banned altogether for such a lengthy period. Ethnic Arabs who hold passports from the United States and other non-Arabic countries are not affected by the ban, the official said.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have long complained about foreign Arabs sneaking into the country to join the battle against the United States and its allies. However, most of them are believed to enter illegally over Iraq's thinly guarded desert borders rather than use airlines or legal frontier crossing points, reports the AP. N.U.