ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq's state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported Wednesday that private airport ground-handling companies had stopped providing services to Iranian airlines over fears of US sanctions, while Reuters reported that the Iraqi government had ordered Iranian flights to Baghdad suspended. Quoting an unnamed Iraqi official, INA said neither the Ministry of Transport nor the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority was responsible for ending services to Iranian aircraft. “The issue concerns ground handling and service companies, which are private, non-governmental companies that have contracts with Iranian airliners to provide services to them after landing and before takeoff,” the source said. “These companies informed the Iranian airlines that they could no longer provide their services due to the fear of facing sanctions,” the official added. Reuters, citing two Iraqi sources, reported that the government had ordered the Civil Aviation Authority to suspend flights operated by Iranian airlines to Baghdad starting Wednesday. The two accounts could not immediately be reconciled. The developments come as the United States expands sanctions pressure on Iran's aviation sector. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that “on September 23, all the Iranian airlines will be shut down around the world,” referring to the effect of the sanctions on their ability to obtain services abroad. “If they land, you cannot provide them with fuel, you cannot provide them with landing services, you cannot sell them tickets or you will be knocked out of the dollar system,” Bessent told CNBC. Iranian aircraft are not necessarily barred from physically landing in Iraq/Kurdistan, but from September 23, foreign airports and companies providing fuel, landing/ground services or ticketing to Iranian airlines risk U.S. secondary sanctions, including loss of access to the U.S. dollar system. It remained unclear whether the reported restrictions covered all Iraqi airports. Najaf International Airport had published a Wednesday flight schedule that included flights from Iranian cities operated by Iranian airlines. In a Wednesday Facebook post, the airport said passenger activity in its arrival and departure halls remained continuous and flight operations were running smoothly. “There is continuous passenger activity in the arrival and departure halls of Najaf Al-Ashraf International Airport, amidst smooth flight operations,” the airport said in a Wednesday Facebook post. Iran's Civil Aviation Organization spokesperson Majid Akhavan told the IRGC-linked Tasnim news agency on Tuesday that flights to Baghdad and Muscat had been cancelled from midnight Wednesday. Iranian authorities were coordinating to redirect Baghdad-bound flights to Najaf, he said. Tasnim also reported that other international flights from Iran, including services to Istanbul, would continue according to schedule.
