Iraqi transport minister Kazem Finjan said the Sumerians – who are believed to be the world’s first civilisation – flew to planets from the UFO airport in Iraq.
The cabinet member revealed the spaceport was located in Dhi Qar, in southeast Iraq.
He made the bizarre claims at a bizarre press conference.
“It was from here that the Sumerian spaceships took off”Kazem Finjan
Mr Finjan told the press: “The first airport to be built on planet Earth, 5,000 years ago, before the Christian era, was built here, in Dhi Qar.”
He continued: “When the Sumerians settled here, they knew full well that the atmosphere here was suitable for flying to outer space.
“It was from here that the Sumerian spaceships took off towards the other planets.
“The Sumerians were the first to discover the 12th planet, which was acknowledged a few days ago by NASA, and named Nibiru, and which completes its orbit around the Sun every 3,600 years.”
The myth – dubbed the Nibiru Cataclysm – was widely ridiculed as a conspiracy theory.
But then astronomers from the California Institute of Technology revealed they had found signs of a real giant hidden planet.
Another space boffin, Daniel Whitmire, of the University of Louisiana, then weighed in, saying the newly discovered “super Earth” – dubbed “Planet Nine” – may have been responsible for a series of historic extinctions on Earth.
Interestingly, the Nibiru Cataclysm theory dates back to 1976, when writer Zecharia Sitchin claimed that two ancient Middle Eastern cultures – the Babylonians and Sumerians – told of a giant planet – Nibiru – that orbited the Sun every 3,600 years.
He based this on a translation of Sumerian writing – one of the earliest systems of writing in the world – which is not recognised by other scholars.
The Iraqi minister cited Sitchin’s work as evidence for his claims – along with British sci-fi writer HG Wells.
The politician was supposed to be announcing the construction of a new – real – airport in Dhi Qar.
But he seemed to have got sidetracked.
Mr Finjan aides can be seen squirming as he goes off on the odd tangent.