Iraqis protest Kuwait's 'provocation'

Scores of Iraqi Airways employees demonstrate at Baghdad International Airport to protest Kuwait's "harassment" of the airlines' chief executive at a London airport.

British authorities seized the passport of Iraqi carrier's Chief Executive Kifah Hassan Jabbar upon his arrival at London's Gatwick Airport on Sunday, reportedly on a demand by the Kuwaiti Airways.

Authorities at the London airport also impounded Jabbar's plane, which was on the first commercial flight from Baghdad to London in 20 years.

The measures were taken over claims by Kuwaiti Airways that the Iraqi carrier owes it $1.2 billion, a dispute dating back to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait under the executed dictator Saddam Hussein in 1990.

Around 200 Iraqi Airways employees gathered at the Baghdad International Airport's administration building to protest the measure.

The demonstrators held up placards and banners with slogans condemning Kuwait's "provocation and harassment."

"Stop sucking the blood of Iraqis with your so-called compensation," read another banner.

Kuwait claims 10 of its planes and a number of its aircraft parts were looted after the airport in the oil-rich emirates was seized by Iraqi forces during the 1990 invasion of the country, which previously enjoyed friendly relations with the former Iraqi dictator and was among the prime sponsors of his massive war effort against Iran in the 1980's.

Baghdad admits to the seizure of 10 fighter jets from Kuwait by its executed dictator in 1990 but claims that four of the aircrafts were destroyed at Mosul's Airport during Western bombing raids, while the remaining six were returned to Kuwait via Iran.

"What Kuwait is doing is in contradiction of the rules of Arab and Islamic brotherhood," AFP quoted Iraqi Airways deputy chief executive Nasser Hussein Bandar as saying.

He noted that the Iraqi airlines had dispatched a delegation to Kuwait to discuss the matter, "but the (Kuwaiti) officials refused to meet with us."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=125605§ionid=351020201.