Iraq seeks humanitarian exemptions from US restrictions to restore Iran flights

BAGHDAD — The government said Saturday it is in direct talks with Washington to exempt some Iraqi airports from the restrictions on Iranian airlines so that flights for medical treatment, education and religious visits can resume, its first public statement since the flights stopped a week ago.

“The Iraqi government is conducting direct dialogue with the American side to exempt some Iraqi airports from these measures, allowing flights to resume for humanitarian reasons related to medical treatment, education, religious visits and the interests of civilians,” the prime minister’s media office said. Seeking an exemption for Iraqi airports amounts to acknowledging they are applying the measures. On Wednesday an official had said private ground-handling companies, not the Transport Ministry or the Civil Aviation Authority, had stopped servicing Iranian aircraft.

Baghdad stopped receiving Iranian flights from midnight on Tuesday, and Iran said it would try to redirect services to Najaf. Najaf airport said on Wednesday it had received no official order to stop them, then suspended all flights to and from Iran from 2 a.m. on Friday. An airport administration source told 964media the directive had come to Najaf governorate from the prime minister’s office, and nine Iranian airlines stopped operating there.

Harakat al-Nujaba’s secretary-general, Akram al-Kaabi, called on citizens and groups that serve pilgrims to Imam Hussein’s shrine to prepare for sit-ins inside Iraqi airports until the U.S. decision is reversed. Talk of sovereignty while Iraq had been turned into “a small village controlled by the criminal American” was a double standard, he said, criticising political forces for accepting restrictions he said would stop millions visiting holy sites. The Badr parliamentary bloc warned the government on Tuesday against enforcing the measures, and Nujaba’s media deputy called the halt submission to U.S. pressure on Thursday.

Najaf tourism companies told 964media before the suspension that Iranian airlines accounted for about 90% of their business and that travellers would face long overland journeys to Mashhad and Qom.

The prime minister’s office said Iraq was working to ease regional tensions and called on all sides to pursue dialogue to end the current conflicts.