Flights from Iran to a holy Shiite city in Iraq could resume as soon as Tuesday in a reprieve from US sanctions, as diplomats made a last peace push at the UN General Assembly.
The airport in Najaf will reopen to Iranian flights “within 24 hours”, said Iraq's ambassador to Iran, Yasser Abdulzahra Al Hajjaj. His remarks were published by official Iraqi media on Monday evening.
The route was suspended on Friday as the effects of US sanctions on Iran rippled across the Middle East. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had warned that any companies dealing with Iranian airlines would be “knocked out of the dollar system”.
Flights from Iran to Baghdad were also suspended. But the blocked route to Najaf rankled especially due to its religious significance. In June, the coffin of Iran's late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was paraded in the city as part of a funeral detour in Iraq.
The source, who is involved in the deliberations, said the US Treasury Department waiver would allow Iraqi Airways to fly to and from the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf for one month, with a more permanent waiver then potentially coming into place.
Mr Al Hajjaj said the Iraqi government had “issued no decision to halt flights with Iran” but that “foreign ground-handling companies refrained from providing their services due to fears of US sanctions”.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi “is making continuous efforts to resume air travel between the two neighbouring countries, Iraq and Iran”, he said.
Reuters also reported that the Trump administration was considering a "limited waiver" to allow pilgrims to travel between Iran and Iraq.
The sanctions are part of the US campaign to isolate Iran economically and force concessions in the war. Meetings at the UN General Assembly have not yet yielded a breakthrough.
On Monday, the last day of speeches from the UN podium, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was to meet mediators in a last diplomatic push in New York.
Mr Araghchi and the mediators were to “review the latest proposals and positions regarding the current situation”, Iran's Isna news agency reported. The US was to hold separate meetings with Qatari mediators, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters.
The Iranian Foreign Minister is remaining in New York. It was not immediately clear who would represent the US.
The talks were expected to address an amended version of a proposal made by Iran last week. Mr Araghchi had suggested a deal with a seven-day countdown to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and pause regional fighting.
The plan envisaged an end to all hostilities in Iran and Lebanon, the unfreezing of billions of dollars worth of Iranian assets, an end to sanctions on Iranian oil and the lifting of the US blockade on Iranian ports.
US President Donald Trump flatly rejected the plan, however. “They want to make a deal where they open the strait immediately because they’re losing so badly,” Mr Trump said.
A previous US-Iran deal in June opened a 60-day window for final negotiations to end the war. But the deadline passed without an agreement after attacks resumed across the Arabian Gulf, particularly involving shipping.
Oil prices surged on Monday as peace talks appeared at a stalemate. Iran’s rial also weakened to a new low of 2.4 million per dollar on Monday, according to tracking website Bonbast.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, in one of his periodic written messages, said enemy forces would eventually be driven out of the Arabian Sea. He said they no longer dared to advance after suffering “painful blows” from Iranian fighters near the Strait of Hormuz.
“It won’t be long before the [Arabian Sea] rids itself of their presence too,” said Mr Khamenei. He has not been seen in public since a US strike that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the start of the US and Israeli attacks on February 28.
