Iraqi Airways resumes Kuwait flights after 2 decades

An Iraqi Airways plane landed in Kuwait City on Wednesday for the first time since Iraq's invasion of the emirate in August 1990, after a commercial dispute was resolved. Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Transport Minister Hadi al-Amari flew in on an Airbus A320, to a welcome from Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah. Kuwait and Iraq's national carriers reached an agreement late last year to resolve a 22-year-old commercial dispute, with Iraqi Airways agreeing to pay $500 million to Kuwait Airways. Under orders from former dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990 but were driven out seven months later by a US-led international coalition. Kuwait Airways chief Sami al-Nisf, quoted by official news agency KUNA, said the Iraqi carrier will make four flights a week to the emirate, while only private Kuwaiti carriers are flying the route.