Baghdad Is Asking Washington for Its Pilgrims Back

Iraq is negotiating directly with the United States for an exemption from the sanctions that have grounded Iranian carriers across the region. The office of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi says the talks aim to let flights resume for humanitarian reasons — medical treatment, education, religious visits and other civilian travel. The request follows new US Treasury measures targeting foreign companies that do business with Iranian airlines, after which the UAE, Oman and Iraq all suspended those flights. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said companies dealing with Iranian carriers would be knocked out of the dollar system, which is the sort of warning airports do not test.

The traffic at stake is unusually specific. Iranian airlines on these routes mainly carry Iraqi Shia pilgrims to holy cities in Iran and Iranians travelling to shrines in Iraq, above all Najaf, home to the shrine of Imam Ali. Cutting the air link has severed one of the busiest religious travel corridors in the Middle East. The same flights also carry Iraqi students enrolled at Iranian universities and patients travelling for medical treatment that is not available at home. None of that is easily replaced by a land crossing that takes many hours and is subject to its own closures.

For the wider region the suspension deepens Iran’s isolation from the aviation network at a point when it was already thin. Iranian carriers have operated for years under sanctions that restrict access to new aircraft and spare parts, and the remaining international routes ran largely through neighbouring Gulf states. Removing the UAE, Oman and Iraq from that list leaves very little. Whether an exemption is granted is a question of US policy rather than aviation regulation, and the Iraqi request is framed narrowly enough — humanitarian and religious categories only — to suggest Baghdad expects nothing broader.

The practical guidance for travellers is unambiguous while this is unresolved. Iran is under a US State Department do-not-travel advisory and the surrounding region is subject to elevated advisories, and anyone with a booking on an Iranian carrier should assume it will not operate rather than wait for a cancellation notice. Travel insurance rarely covers sanctions-driven cancellations, which are typically excluded as government action, so refunds will depend on the airline or the booking agent. Pilgrimage travel to Najaf from outside the region is generally routed through Baghdad or Najaf’s own airport on other carriers, which continue to operate.

Sources: The National, Al Arabiya English