The Sudanese government confirmed reports that Saudi Arabia barred an aircraft carrying longtime President Omar al-Bashir from crossing its airspace towards Iran

The Sudanese government confirmed reports that Saudi Arabia barred an aircraft carrying longtime President Omar al-Bashir from crossing its airspace towards Iran.

Bashir was headed to Tehran to take part in the swearing-in ceremony of president-elect Hasan Rouhani. Sudan official news agency (SUNA) said that Bashir was on a chartered Saudi flight flown by non-Sudanese pilots and noted that they had obtained prior clearance for the trip.

The agency said that Khartoum is awaiting clarification from Riyadh on the incident.

A presidential official in Khartoum did not speculate on the causes behind the Saudi move. "The Saudi authorities refused to give the plane carrying President Bashir permission to cross their airspace," Emad Sayed Ahmed, the presidential press secretary, told Agence France Presse (AFP).

Ahmed said that when Bashir's plane entered Saudi airspace the pilot informed authorities that it had approval "and that it was carrying Sudan's leader. The plane circled inside Saudi airspace for an hour seeking to negotiate approval but to no avail. "But they said the plane didn't have permission," forcing it to return to Khartoum, he said.

Bashir was accompanied by presidential affairs minister Bakri Hassan Saleh, foreign minister Ali Karti and intelligence director Mohammed Atta among others.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi was quoted by the ISNA news agency as calling the Saudi move "very unfortunate", and adding that Tehran was investigating.