Flights between Turkey and Iraq restart

Flights between Turkey and Iraq will resume as the two neighbours try to sort out a debt row that led to tit-for-tat bans on air traffic, the Turkish trade minister said late Monday.The Iraqi civil aviation authority has removed the ban on Turkish aircraft for one week. Upon this development, planes from both countries are allowed to fly, trade minister Zafer Caglayan said in a statement carried by Anatolia news agency.

The minister said he planned to hold talks with officials from Iraq and Turkish air firms to try and resolve the dispute.He said that Iraq has owed $20 million to four Turkish air companies since 1990 and that the firms had applied to confiscate Iraqi aircraft in lieu of the unpaid bills. Two of the firms had since dropped their bid, Anatolia quoted Caglayan as saying earlier in the day.On Saturday, Iraq announced that Turkish aircraft would be banned from landing at Iraqi airports from Sunday, in response to an earlier decision by Turkey to ban Iraqi flights.