Iraq Seeks US Exemption for Airports Hit by Iran Flight Ban — SkimNews
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- Iraq is in direct talks with Washington seeking exemptions for some airports from US measures targeting Iranian airline flights in the region
- Four Iraqi airports — Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil, and Sulaimaniyah — suspended all flights to and from Iran on Friday after Washington announced new aviation sanctions on any global company doing business with Iranian airlines
- PM Ali al-Zaidi's media office said US exemptions for Baghdad would allow flights to resume on humanitarian grounds related to medical treatment, education, and religious visits
- Al-Zaidi's government urged dialogue and negotiations to de-escalate regional tensions, warning that "the continuation of crises further complicates the situation"
- Iraq's ambassador to Tehran Yasser al-Hajjaj cited ~100,000 Iraqi students at Iranian institutions, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis living in Iran, and thousands of daily crossings as evidence that bilateral ties are "too deep to be affected by a temporary crisis"
- Iran-allied Iraqi militias organized protests in Baghdad against the flight suspensions, and scholars and students from the Hawza of Najaf held a vigil condemning the halt
Why it matters: With four airports shut and passengers forced onto 12-hour land journeys, Iraq's exemption bid carries concrete stakes for roughly 100,000 Iraqi students in Iran and Shia pilgrims traveling between Najaf and Iran's holy cities — making the US sanctions not just a geopolitical pressure point but a direct disruption to civilian life that Iraq's Shia-led government cannot easily absorb.
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