Najaf flight lands in Tehran on day Iraqi Airways restarts Iran service

NEWSROOM — A flight from Najaf landed at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport on Thursday morning, Iran’s Fars news agency reported, on the day Iraqi Airways said it would restart daily direct flights between Najaf and Iran.

Fars said the service would run in both directions but did not name the airline or give a schedule. Iraqi Airways said on Monday that it would fly daily from Oct. 8 between Najaf and Tehran, Mashhad and Isfahan, under a special license the U.S. Treasury issued it on Sept. 29. The airline suspended flights into Iranian airspace in early March because of the regional conflict.

Iranian airlines returned to Najaf on Oct. 4, when a Caspian Airlines flight from Tehran was the first to land since the suspension. Iraq had announced two days earlier that it had secured a U.S. exemption allowing Iranian carriers up to 40 flights a day, excluding Mahan Air, which has been under U.S. sanctions since 2011 for links to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Najaf suspended all flights to and from Iran on Sept. 25, after U.S. Treasury sanctions on 27 Iranian airlines announced Sept. 8. Iraqi officials said private ground-handling companies had stopped servicing Iranian aircraft for fear of exposure to the sanctions. Before the suspension, Iranian airlines ran about 50 flights a day between Najaf and Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan and Rasht, carrying pilgrims, patients and other travelers.