Baghdad has secured an exemption from Washington allowing Iranian flights to and from the Shiite holy city of Najaf, following U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran’s aviation sector, an Iraqi Foreign Ministry official said Monday.
The U.S. Treasury Department, responding to an inquiry from MBN, said it “does not comment publicly on licensing matters, consistent with the longstanding policy of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).”
According to the Iraqi official, the exemption was granted after Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi called U.S. envoy Tom Barrack and requested that Najaf airport be exempted from the general halt on all Iranian flights to Iraqi airports.
The official said Barrack conveyed the request to U.S. officials responsible for sanctions decisions and told them that Najaf should be exempted because the city is a destination for religious pilgrimages and medical visits that “should not be affected.” Barrack later informed the Iraqi side that the request had been approved, the source said.
Neither Baghdad nor Washington has officially announced an exemption for Iranian flights to and from Najaf airport from the sanctions.
The Iraqi official said the exemption would apply only to Najaf International Airport and would be announced soon, without specifying when it would take effect or how long it would remain in force.
The four Iraqi airports that once received Iranian flights — Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah — have successively stopped doing so in recent days, following U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran’s aviation sector earlier this month.
Najaf was the last of the four airports to suspend the flights. On the night of Sept. 24, airport station managers received an internal message from the airport administration ordering the suspension of all flights to and from Iran “until further notice,” citing “official directives issued by the relevant authorities.” The message did not identify those authorities or give a reason for the decision.
Najaf airport accounts for the largest share of air traffic between the two countries. The city, home to the shrine of Imam Ali, is, along with neighboring Karbala, the main destination for Iranian pilgrims visiting Shiite religious shrines. It also draws patients seeking treatment at its hospitals and private medical centers, as well as a point of departure for Iraqis traveling to Iran for medical care.
The U.S. Treasury Department last week threatened to impose sanctions on any airport providing services to Iranian airlines beginning Sept. 23 under a campaign aimed at isolating Tehran financially as an “economic pariah.”
Adapted and translated from the original Arabic.
