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First Baghdad-EU flight after 19 years

29 March 2009 / 10:03:55  GRReporter
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Stockholm-Athens-Bagdad was the first route of the Iraqi Airways plane – this is the first flight after 19 years, which connected the Iraqi capital and the European Union. The Iraqi Airways planes had to remain on land during 1990, when the international community put an embargo on the Persian country after Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait. After Saddam’s regime fell during 2003, the national air carrier Iraqi Airways started flying to neighboring Arab countries like Iran and Turkey.


The Iraqi Transport Minister Amir Abduljabbar was on board of the plane and during his short stay in Athens airport, he talked to Greek officials about widening the relationship between Iraq and Greece. The minister announced that the following weeks, the Iraqi airline will start flying to Germany, India, Qatar, and Bahrain.


At the end of December the Iraqi government signed an agreement with the consortium Air France-KLM about starting civil flights between Baghdad and the EU and about the renovating the third terminal of the airport in Baghdad, so it can be up to the European standards. As part of the agreement, Air-France-KLM obliged themselves to help Iraq create international contacts.


Stockholm was preferred as a destination because Sweden is among the European countries, which has accepted the most refugees from Iraq.

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