Air flights to be resumed shortly between Iraq, Iran

The director of the Iranian civil aviation organization said on Wednesday in statements quoted by the Iranian news agency that direct flights between Tehran and Damascus will shortly cross though the Iraqi airspace.

The director of the Iranian civil aviation organization Bahzad Mazahiri said during a national meeting dedicated to the issue of communications in the Iranian island of Keish in the Arab Gulf that "' regular and direct flights between Iran and the Syrian Arab Republic will start shortly through crossing via the Iraqi airspace."

Currently, flights between Tehran and Damascus go through the Turkish airspace since the war between Iran and Iraq ( 1980- 1988). Most of these flights are run by the Iranian airline and in particular transports pilgrims. Mazahari indicated that direct flights between Iran and Iraq will be resumed " shortly" after agreements were reached between the two countries to this effect.

These meetings are followed by a meeting which was recently held in Tehran between the Iranian minister of transport Ahmad Khouram and his Iraqi counterpart Ahmad Murtada Ahmad. Following this meeting Khouram expressed his hope to sign a " cooperation agreement in the field of air transport between the two countries very shortly."

For his part, Murtada considered that the: "resumption of flights between the two countries will open the door before cooperation in other sectors."