Four Iraqi airports have suspended all flights to and from Iran, days after the United States announced new aviation sanctions targeting any global companies doing business with Iranian airlines. The move marks the latest escalation in the US-led "Operation Economic Outcast," launched in August to isolate Iran from the global economy. Iraqi state media confirmed that flights will no longer operate from Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil, and Sulaimaniyah airports.

Iraq had been one of the top destinations for Iranian airlines, especially after Iraqi carriers stopped flying to Iran at the start of the US-Israel war on Iran in February. Passengers traveling between Iran and Iraq will now be forced to make a land journey of at least 12 hours, depending on the destination. Iraq's state news agency reported the suspension at Najaf International Airport earlier on Friday. Airport director Hussein Muhanna told AFP that "all flights were halted between Iran and Najaf airport following a directive from the prime minister's office to the governor" of Najaf.

Iraq and neighboring Iran are both Shia-majority countries, and flights to and from Najaf carry Iraqi Shia Muslim pilgrims to Iran's holy cities or Iranians visiting sacred sites in Iraq. In a post on X, the Iranian Consulate in Najaf responded to the suspension, saying: "Najaf International Airport, the shrine of the first Imam of the Shia, and the capital of their last Imam, is closed to the largest Shia country in the world?!" An Iraqi employee of an Iranian airline at Najaf airport told AFP that Iranian carriers usually operate at least 20 daily flights, but after the suspension, only four flights to other destinations remained scheduled on Friday.

Several other regional countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, have either cancelled or restricted flights to Iran to enforce US aviation sanctions. That is despite the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council warning neighboring nations against imposing a US flight ban. Iranian airlines are now relying on a few reduced routes, including Turkiye, Russia, China, and Armenia, to remain operational. "We cannot say that Iran is totally cut off from air traffic, but shrunk considerably," said Al Jazeera's Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Tehran.

Reporting from Baghdad, Al Jazeera's Jack Hewson said Iraq's central government has made no statement about the flight suspensions, likely because it "doesn't want to antagonise" pro-Iranian factions in Iraq's parliament. Explaining the country's decision to comply with the US move, Hewson said: "Companies providing ground services, like refuelling, baggage, it appears, are not willing to risk secondary sanctions and being frozen out of the international US dollar system." "Iraq's in a very difficult position," Hewson added. "It's tied to the US, but it's also tied to Iran. And at times like these, it's squeezed between the two."

Source: www.aljazeera.com