Kuwait, Jordan move closer as flights resume

Jordan and Kuwait resumed direct air flights on July 9 for the first time since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, in the latest move towards normalizing their relations.

A Kuwaiti Airways jet landed on the tarmac of Amman's Queen Alia international airport just a few hundred meters from two Iraqi Airways planes grounded since the 1990 Gulf crisis.

"I am happy to arrive in Amman, of course I went back to the past and remembered seven years ago... This is a sign of restoration of ties," said captain Bassam Nafisi, who piloted the two-and-a-half hour flight.

Jordan and Kuwait suffered in their relations in the aftermath of the August 1990 invasion over Jordan's perceived sympathy with Baghdad.

Asked whether Kuwaitis had put behind the bitterness towards ordinary Jordanians, Nafisi said, "Of course a while ago ties were a bit sour as a result of the Iraqi invasion but the nature of Arabs and Gulf states is forgiving."

Jordanian officials are hopeful Kuwait will soon restore full diplomatic ties with Jordan, now at charge d'affairs level, and allow the kingdom to reopen its embassy, looted and burnt out by angry Kuwaitis after the emirate was liberated by Western and Arab forces in 1991.