Source: US approves Najaf exemption for Iran flights

Shafaq News- Baghdad/ Washington

The US administration has agreed to exempt Najaf International Airport from restrictions affecting Iranian airline operations, an Iraqi government source told Shafaq News on Tuesday, citing the airport's use of Iraqi ground-handling staff and its ability to process transactions outside the US dollar.

The source said other Iraqi airports rely on foreign ground-handling companies that halted services to Iranian carriers over concerns about US sanctions, while Najaf uses Iraqi ground-service staff and can process transactions in euros, Iraqi dinars or Iranian tomans.

Najaf Airport is also administratively under the provincial government rather than the Transport Ministry and had continued servicing Iranian carriers until a US decision prompted Najaf Governor Yusuf Kanawi to halt those operations.

The source said Iranian airlines could resume flights once Iraq’s Council of Ministers or the Najaf governor issues the necessary authorization, without exposing the airport to US sanctions.

On September 28, Iraqi Airways announced that it had resumed its own flights to Iranian airports through Najaf. However, the resumption did not apply to Iranian carriers. A Najaf Airport source later told Shafaq News that restrictions on Iranian airlines remained in force and that the airport had received no official instructions allowing them to resume flights.

Read more: US sanctions reshape Iraq-Iran travel, airline operations