A judge ordered the chief executive of Iraqi Airways to remain in the UK after seizing his passport and impounding his aircraft at Gatwick Airport after the re-borne carrier’s first commercial flight from Baghdad to London ended in a legal nightmare as a result of a two-decade-long dispute with Kuwait Airways. The Kuwaiti airline claimed in court that Iraqi Airways owes it US$1.2 billion as a result of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, when, according to the oil-rich emirate, 10 of its aircraft along with spares were plundered after its airport was seized. “Kuwait Airways and Iraqi Airways are victims. In fact both countries are victims, victims of Saddam’s regime,” said Iraqi Airway chief executive Kifah Hassan Jabbar. “We should start a new age between the two countries.”