Reuters reports that Iraq showed off two newly-purchased fighter jets at Balad Air Force Base on Thursday. The Aero Vodochody L-159 subsonic jets, bought from the Czech Republic, are due to be used in the fight against the Islamic State group (IS, ISIS, ISIL).
By John Lee. Iraqi politicians have reportedly made allegations of corruption relating to the sale of Czech military aircraft to Iraq. According to media sources, Iskandar Watoot, from the Iraqi parliament's security and defense committee, says corruption worth millions of dollars has accompanied the purchase of the L-159 subsonic combat planes, while Haitham al-Jubouri, a […]
By John Lee. The weak Czech crown is complicating the reccently-agreed sale of the Czech L-159 combat aircraft to Iraq, according to reports from Prague Monitor and Hospodarske noviny (HN). The Czech government now wants Penta, the owner of the mediating firm Aero Vodochody, to pay it 850 million crowns ($35 million, 41 billion Iraqi […]
By John Lee. The Czech government has approved the sale of 15 redundant L-159 combat planes to Iraq. Defense Minister Martin Stropnický said the government will receive 750 million Kč ($30 million) via the Aero Vodochody mediating company. Prague Post reports that the deal will give work to up to 100 people who will assemble […]
By John Lee. The Czech government has given the go-ahead to supply 100 military vehicles to Iraq, to support the ongoing fight against Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL) militants. BasNews reports that the vehicles are reconditioned BVP-1 armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and T-72 tanks, to be supplied by a company called Excalibur Army. (Source: BasNews) […]
By John Lee. The Czech cabinet has postponed a decision on the sale of redundant L-159 subsonic fighters to Iraq. Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky said on Wednesday that "the way of assigning the proceeds from the sale to the Defence Ministry must be defined before the decision is made." Global Times reports that the Czech Defence […]
Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani welcomed the Czech Republic’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lubomír Zaorálek, on Thursday. In a meeting in Erbil, the President and the Czech Foreign Minister discussed strengthening bilateral relations and military support by the Czech Republic to Iraq and Kurdish peshmerga forces. Foreign Minister Zaorálek, who was accompanied by his country’s […]
By John Lee. The Czech Foreign Minister, Lubomír Zaorálek and Deputy Defense Minister, Tomáš Kuchta, is to visit Iraq this week with a delegation of businesspeople to boost business deals, mainly in the defense sector. “Negotiations about the supplies of aviation technology, the pilots' training and the armoring of helicopters are underway there,” Kuchta told […]
By John Lee. Czech aviation company Aero Vodochody has reportedly agreed to sell 12 L-159 subsonic fighter jets to Iraq, but the package must still be approved by the governments of both countries. Martin Danko, the broker for the deal, refused to reveal the price. According to Associated Press, Iraq had initially agreed to buy […]
By John Lee. The planned sale of the Czech military L-159 planes to Iraq is reported to have broken down. Producer Aero Vodochody has allegedly limited the preparation for the production of 24 new planes to the minimum. The contract, which was announced last year, has not yet been signed, according to the Insider daily, but […]
By John Lee. Iraq has agreed to buy 28 Czech-made Aero Vodochody L-159 advanced trainer/light-attack jets valued at $1 billion dollars (770 billions euros), a Czech defence ministry announced on Friday. Agreement to buy the 24 new planes and four older army surplus aircraft was reached at the end of a two-day visit to Prague by […]
KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani announced a strategic, tripartite energy agreement yesterday between companies from the Czech Republic, Turkey and the Kurdistan Region to build a new power plant. The agreement brings together the Czech Export Bank, Czech company PSG International, Turkey’s Renaissance Construction and KAR Group, the Kurdistan Region’s largest company, to build and […]
