Iraq begins first flight to Kuwait in 22 years

Iraq's state-run airline on Wednesday resumed flight to Kuwait, a service halted after ousted President Saddam Hussein invaded the Gulf oil-rich state in 1990, an Iraqi official said. "An Iraqi Airways plane made its first direct flight to Kuwait today after 22 years of suspension," Kareem al-Noori, an advisor to the Iraqi transportation minister told reporters here. Al-Noori said that Minister of Transport Hadi al-Ameri and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hoshyar Zebari, accompanied by a number of lawmakers and senior officials, were onboard the plane in celebration of the flight inauguration. The resumption of the flight is a sign of improvement of relations between Baghdad and Kuwait after the two made tangible strides that contributed to resolving the outstanding issues of reparations of Iraq's invasion to Kuwait in 1990. The Kuwaiti state-run airline has not resumed flights to Iraq yet, but a small Kuwaiti private airway company has been operating direct flights between Baghdad and Kuwait since April 2012. Saddam's invasion of Kuwait led to the 1991 Gulf War, in which the U.S.-led coalition forces evicted the Iraqi soldiers from Kuwait.