Iraq has won a carve-out from U.S. sanctions that will let most Iranian airlines resume up to 40 daily flights to and from the holy city of Najaf, even as Washington keeps the broader squeeze on Iran's aviation sector in place. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's office announced the agreement on Friday, capping a tense week in which flights between the two neighbors ground to a halt.
The exemption, which excludes the U.S.-sanctioned carrier Mahan Air, was agreed to by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during an October 1 meeting in Washington with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, according to Iraq's foreign ministry, as reported by Al-Monitor. The two officials discussed Shiite pilgrimages to Najaf, U.S. sanctions on Iran, and Iraq's progress in disarming Iranian-backed militias, per the U.S. Department of the Treasury's own readout of the meeting. Iraq's transportation ministry had been pushing for the special exemption, and Iraqi Airways will also be permitted to fly to Iran under the new terms.
The breakdown traces back to Washington's broader campaign against Tehran's airline industry. The Al Jazeera reports that U.S. sanctions on Iranian airlines took effect on September 23, exposing any foreign airport or company that serviced the sanctioned carriers to the risk of secondary sanctions themselves. Iraq had ceased flights to and from Iran in late September as a result.
Conflicting Accounts of Who Pulled the Plug
Exactly how and why the flights stopped depends on who is telling the story. Al-Monitor's account describes Iraq as having halted flights to and from Iran in line with the U.S. sanctions. But Iraq's government has offered a different version: according to Iraqi News Agency, officials said no government decision was ever made to halt the flights, and that foreign ground-handling companies simply refused to keep servicing them out of fear of running afoul of U.S. sanctions themselves.
Either way, the shutdown happened fast. Alhurra reported that on the night of September 24, airport station managers at Najaf received an internal message ordering the suspension of flights to and from Iran. The disruption cut off a route that mattered enormously to ordinary travelers: before the suspension, Iranian airlines were flying roughly 25 daily flights from Iran to Najaf and about 15 more to Baghdad, carrying somewhere between 12,000 and 13,000 passengers in both directions, according to Al Jazeera's reporting.
Why Najaf Matters So Much
Najaf is one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites, and millions of Iranians travel there each year, a fact rooted in the shared Shiite faith of Iran and Iraq. That religious weight is precisely why Iraq pressed Washington for relief, having sought exemptions specifically tied to pilgrimage, medical treatment and education travel, Al-Monitor notes. As of Friday, flights between Najaf and Iran had restarted, while service remained suspended at the Baghdad, Erbil and Sulaimaniyah airports, per Al Jazeera's reporting.
The U.S. has drawn a sharp line between Najaf-bound traffic and Mahan Air specifically. Washington has accused the carrier of ferrying personnel, weapons, equipment and funds for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Mahan Air has been under U.S. sanctions since 2011. The Treasury Department has said foreign entities that enable Iranian airlines, including through cargo services, risk punishment themselves, part of a wider September crackdown Washington has levied against Iran's aviation sector that has reduced ordinary Iranian civilians' air access to neighboring countries.
Tehran Pushes Back, Calls It Economic Pressure
Iran has not accepted the restrictions quietly. Its government has condemned the broader U.S. campaign and the airline curbs, and Iran's foreign ministry said on October 2 that it was calling on Iraq to take appropriate measures in response to the pressure. Tehran has also taken its objections to international bodies: Iran filed a formal complaint with the International Civil Aviation Organization over the U.S. aviation sanctions, Al Jazeera reports.
Iran's foreign ministry has framed the stakes in stark terms, saying the restrictions created serious problems for hundreds of thousands of passengers, pilgrims, patients, students and economic actors, according to the Tehran Times. Ali Akbar Velayati, a foreign policy adviser to Iran's supreme leader, addressed Prime Minister al-Zaidi directly on social media, saying that legitimacy does not come from Washington — it comes from the soil of Najaf and the blood of the martyrs, according to reporting by The New York Times.
The episode underscores the tightrope Iraq is walking between two adversaries now at war with each other. Al-Zaidi has separately pledged to disarm Iraq's Iran-backed militias by June, a commitment that figures into Washington's broader expectations for his government. The U.S. Treasury did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the flight resumption, the Times reported, and the precise duration and licensing terms of the new exemption have not been made public in full.
