Iran, Iraq raise diplomatic ties; Iraqi Airways resumes intl flights

By: Sultan Ahmed

AMMAN, Jordan: Iraq and Iran have upgraded diplomatic ties to ambassador level after 24 years while National carrier Iraqi Airways launched its first international flight in 14 years on Saturday with a plane taking off from Amman to Baghdad - but without any passengers.

Iraqi ambassador Muhammad Majid Ash-Sheikh took up his post in the Iranian capital for the first time since the two countries went to war in 1980.

Sheikh, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, presented his credentials to Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi, the state news agency IRNA reported Saturday.

It is unclear when Iran will name its ambassador to Baghdad.

Iraqi Airways had been grounded since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent UN sanctions imposed on the former regime of toppled dictator Saddam.

It has only one functioning plane, a Boeing 737. Iraqi Airways' old fleet is scattered, with several of the aging planes in Amman and Tunis, none of them operational.

Airline official Fathi Nassar said the plane left Amman without any passengers because the resumption of flights was announced too late for tickets to be sold.

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