Iraq has approved a request from Kuwait's Jazeera Airways to operate services to Baghdad and Najaf, more than 20 years after direct flights between the neighbours were halted, officials said Thursday. "We agreed yesterday to the request of the Kuwaiti Jazeera Airways company to (begin) flights from Kuwait to Iraq," said Nasser Hussein Bandar, the head of Iraq's civil aviation authority.
Bandar said Jazeera Airways, which was founded in 2004, had requested four flights a week to Baghdad and four more to the central Iraq city Najaf. -Karim al-Nuri, an adviser to Iraq's transport minister, confirmed that a deal was approved. "This is a step on the path to resolve all the suspended files between Iraq and Kuwait," including unresolved disputes over borders, said Nuri.