Sept 25 (Reuters) – Iraq’s Erbil and Sulaimaniya airports suspended Iranian flights starting on Friday, two sources told Reuters, after other Iraqi airports took the same step earlier in the week.
The move means that according to sources and state media, flights to and from Iran are suspended from all four Iraqi airports at which they were operating — Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil and Sulaimaniya.
Iraq’s state news agency reported the suspension at Najaf International Airport earlier on Friday.
Two separate sources told Reuters earlier in the week that Iraq ordered its civil aviation authority to halt Iranian flights to Baghdad airport from Wednesday. The sources said at the time that the government was discussing diverting Iranian flights from Baghdad to Najaf.
Washington had announced it would impose sanctions on any global companies doing business with Iranian airlines after September 23, with the aim of grounding Iran‘s entire civilian fleet worldwide.
The United Arab Emirates, the Middle East’s biggest travel hub, also said on Thursday it was suspending all flights by Iranian airlines to and from the country until further notice.
(Reporting by Eman Abouhassira and Tala Ramadan in Dubai, Muayad Hameed in Baghdad, Editing by Timothy Heritage, Aidan Lewis)
