ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s ambassador to Iran stated on Monday that Najaf International Airport will reopen to Iranian flights “within 24 hours,” state media reported, an hour after an official from Iran’s aviation authority informed state media that there has been no new decision on the resumption of flights between Iran and Iraq’s holy city of Najaf.
"No government decision has been issued to halt flights with Iran; rather, foreign ground handling companies have refrained from providing their services for fear of US sanctions," Iraqi ambassador to Iran, Yasser Abdul-Zahra Al-Hajjaj told state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA) adding that "Najaf International Airport will reopen to Iranian flights within 24 hours."
The statement comes shortly after Ali Kashani Heydari, public relations director of Imam Khomeini Airport City, said that "no official notification has been received” regarding the resumption of flights between Iran and Najaf International Airport, according to Iran’s state run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), amid claims of the restart of flights on Wednesday from “an Iraqi Telegram channel claiming that the first flight from Tehran to Najaf would take place next Wednesday.”
The statement appears to be in response to comments from Hashim al-Hassanawi, senior member of the Hikma movement of prominent cleric Ammar al-Hakim - part of Iraq’s ruling Shitte Coordination framework - who told Iraqi channel al-Ahd on Sunday night that flight resumptions were underway.
“We have received information that flights [from Iran to Najaf International Airport] will start on Wednesday… According to the information we have, this might be the start of providing an exception for Iraq,” said Hassanawi, claiming that “Iraqi companies would be taking over the management and administration of Najaf International Airport to assuage fears.”
A source from the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Rudaw on Monday that they expect a decision regarding the resumption of flights sometime in the next 24 hours from the Iraqi government, which is waiting on a US government decision on whether to grant Iraq an exemption, while labelling Hassanawi’s comments as a “pressure tactic” against the Iraqi government to reverse its decision.
Following the suspension of flights to Iran on Friday in compliance with US sanctions targeting Iran’s aviation sector, Iraq said it is in direct talks with the United States to seek exemptions for some Iraqi airports, allowing Iranian flights to resume for humanitarian and civilian purposes including medical treatment, education, and religious visits.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, who was in New York last week, announced on Sunday that he had landed in Washington to meet US officials and think tanks in a tweet. It is not clear if Hussein will seek a waiver from the US regarding Iranian airliners during the surprise trip.
A large number of Iraqi Shiite politicians, including leaders of Badr and Sadiqoon of Qais al-Khazaali, two prominent leaders of the ruling Coordination Framework, have also expressed dissatisfaction with the decision amid calls to protest the decision from a senior leader of Iraq’s Iran-backed Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba.
Iraqi lawmakers from Najaf said Sunday they have collected 50 parliamentary signatures, with another 50 in the works, to call on the Iraqi government to cancel its decision to halt services to Iranian carriers.
Najaf is one of Iraq’s holiest cities, housing shrines of major religious figures of Shiite Islam. Millions of Shiite pilgrims from around the world, particularly from Iran, visit Najaf and Karbala annually.
