Iraq is holding direct talks with the US to exempt some Iraqi airports from measures imposed by the Treasury Department on Iranian airlines flying to hubs in the region, Baghdad said on Saturday.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi's office said the talks aimed to allow flights to resume for humanitarian reasons, including travel for medical treatment, education, religious visits and other civilian interests.
The government said it was working to ease tensions in the region, warning that prolonged crises would further complicate the situation. It called on all parties to engage in dialogue and negotiations to resolve the current crises and conflicts in a way that serves the interests of countries and peoples across the region.
With fighting escalating in Yemen, ceasefire efforts stalled and direct US-Iranian fire easing, Washington has shifted to increasing economic pressure through secondary sanctions on foreign companies that do business with Iranian firms.
The sanctions are part of the US campaign to isolate Iran economically and force concessions in the war. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that companies that dealt with Iranian airlines would be "knocked out of the dollar system".
Iranian airlines were banned from neighbouring countries including the UAE, Oman and Iraq in response to new US sanctions, marking the first major impact of the move. A prolonged flight ban could deepen Iran's isolation and worsen an economic crisis already aggravated by a US blockade of its ports.
Iran reacted angrily on Friday after US sanctions on air travel shut off a route to the Shiite city of Najaf in Iraq. The Iranian Civil Aviation Organisation said ticket sales to Najaf had been suspended, as the effects of US sanctions ripple across the Middle East.
An Iranian consulate in the city expressed outrage at the ban. In a post on X, it said: "Najaf International Airport, the shrine of the first imam of the Shiites, and the capital of their last imam, is closed to the largest Shiite country in the world?!"
Najaf is home to the shrine of Imam Ali, the Prophet Mohammed's cousin and son-in-law. In June, the coffin of Iran's former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was paraded in the city as part of a funeral tour in Iraq.
Flights to Baghdad were suspended on Wednesday. But Iranian state media had initially reported that the route to Najaf would remain open.
