US to allow flights between Iraq holy city and Iran

The United States has granted Iraqi Airways, the national carrier, a sanctions waiver allowing it to fly to Iran, Iraq’s transport ministry said on Tuesday.

Efforts by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and Transport Minister Wahb al-Hasani “successfully obtained a special exemption for Iraqi Airways to operate its flights to the Islamic Republic of Iran”, the ministry said in a statement.

A government official told AFP that the exemption applied to pilgrims travelling between Iran and Iraq’s holy city of Najaf.

“The airport was informed yesterday that Iraqi airlines can fly to Iran but there is no schedule yet,” an airport source told AFP.

The transport ministry said flights were set to start from Najaf in October, “once the necessary organisational requirements have been fulfilled”.

The Iraqi government had said last week that it was in talks with the US to seek an exemption after sanctions on Iran’s aviation sector took effect.

Flights between the two countries mainly carry Iraqi Shia pilgrims to Iran’s holy cities or Iranians to sacred sites in Iraq.

The flights also serve Iraqi students studying in Iran and patients seeking medical treatment there.

Iraq joined several countries including the United Arab Emirates in enforcing the US ban, after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Iranian airlines would be “shut down”.

Bessent said on Saturday that he had sent envoys around the world to pressure countries to economically isolate Iran, hailing the new restrictions targeting the country’s airlines and banks.

Iranian airlines had suspended their flights to Iran as of September 23, while Iraqi Airways halted its flights to neighbouring Iran in March near the start of the Middle East war “in order to safeguard the safety of flights and passengers”, the transport ministry said.