Iraq seeks exemption from US ban on Iran airlines

The Iraqi government said Saturday it is in talks with the United States to seek an exemption from sanctions on Iranian airlines, which have disrupted travel for patients, students and pilgrims.

All Iraqi airports enforced the US ban this week, resulting in major disruption at the airport serving the holy city of Najaf, the main destination in Iraq for Iranian flights.

"The Iraqi government is holding direct talks with the American side to exempt certain Iraqi airports from these measures," the prime minister's media office said.

An exemption, it added, would allow flights to resume "for humanitarian reasons, including medical treatment, education, religious visits, and for the interest of civilians".

Iranian airlines mainly carry Iraqi Shia pilgrims to Iran's holy cities or Iranians visiting sacred sites in Iraq. The flights also serve Iraqi students studying in Iran and patients seeking medical treatment there.

Several Iraqis told AFP the enforcement of the US sanctions has left them scrambling, with some fearing they would lose access to medical treatment in Iran or others stranded there and facing a more than 12-hour journey home by land.

In an interview with Iranian news agency ISNA, Iran's ambassador to Iraq Mohammad Kazem Al-Sadegh said his country was also in contact with the Baghdad authorities to find a way to restore the flights.

"There are roughly 25 daily flights from Iran to Najaf and about 15 flights to Baghdad, and... around 12,000 to 13,000 people travel between Iran and Iraq and vice versa on Iranian airlines, which is not a small number," he said.

"This ban has created problems even for the Iraqis themselves, including Iraqi students studying in Iran."

Iraq has 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" on Wednesday.

Relations between Iraq and neighbouring Iran, both Shia-majority countries, have long been close, due to religious kinship as well as political and economic interests.

Iraqi airlines stopped flying to Iran at the start of the Middle East war in February.