Kuwait approves deal with Iraq over airline debt

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that the Emir of Kuwait approved a settlement proposed earlier between Iraq and Kuwait to resolve the stand-off of the Iraqi Airways debt. In astatement issued by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, Sabah al- Khalid, Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister earlier in the day phoned the Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and confirmed to him his country's approval for a financial deal aimed at resolving the Kuwaiti Airways debt. "The Emir of Kuwait (Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah) signed an Emiri Decree for a law that approves the financial settlement reached by both sides," the statement said. The Kuwaiti government "published today the newly approved law on the Official Kuwaiti Newspaper, and the law firms in Britain have been informed to stop all proceedings against the Iraqi Airways and Iraqi properties," the ministry statement added. On March 14, Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visited Kuwait and met with Kuwaiti leaders and the two sides reached a 500 million dollars agreement to resolve a standoff over war reparations that had prevented Iraqi Airways from flying to destinations in the West. Under the deal, Iraq will pay Kuwait 300 million dollars in cash and will invest another 200 million dollars in a joint Iraqi- Kuwaiti airline venture. In return, Kuwait would lift legal actions against Iraqi Airways. In 2010 Kuwait's lawyers for the state-owned Kuwait Airways tried to seize an Iraqi Airways plane on its first flight to London more than 20 years after they obtained an order from the High Court in London that included freezing the assets of Iraqi Airways Company worldwide. According to the Iraqi statement, the latest Kuwaiti approval for a settlement "would lift all restrictions and complications on rebuilding the Iraqi Airways, buying new airplanes, and the establishment of a fleet." The two countries recently made tangible strides that might contribute in resolving the outstanding issues of reparations of Saddam Hussein's invasion to Kuwait in 1990. Observers see that such moves are helpful to ending the UN sanctions (known as "Chapter 7" sanctions) imposed on Iraq after the 1990 invasion.