An Iraqi Airways flight from Najaf landed at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport on the morning of October 8, 2026, in what Iranian state television called the first commercial flight by a foreign airline to land in Iran since the war began. State TV put the landing at 6:50 a.m. local time and described the service as a round trip, AFP reported.
The flight rests on a narrow, temporary US Treasury license for Iraq’s national carrier. It comes after a US sanctions deadline on September 23 began shutting Iranian airlines out of most foreign airports.
A daily Najaf service to three Iranian cities
Iraqi Airways said it would run regular daily flights from Najaf International Airport to Tehran, Mashhad and Isfahan, the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported, according to Anadolu Agency. The airline said the routes are meant to ease religious, medical and educational travel.
The carrier had stopped flying to Iran in early March as a precaution after the US-Israeli war on Iran broke out on February 28. Neither the flight number nor the aircraft used on Thursday appears in the reports AeroCorner reviewed.
Najaf, a city holy to Shia Muslims, is the main Iraqi destination for Iranian flights, which mostly carry pilgrims. Before the ban, about 25 flights a day ran from Iran to Najaf and about 15 to Baghdad, Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad told ISNA, as cited by Al Jazeera.
What the US license actually allows
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued license IA-2026-1516078-1 to Iraqi Airways on September 29, Shafaq News reported. Under its reported terms, every flight must start and end in Najaf and may carry only Iranian nationals traveling as religious pilgrims, with cargo limited to personal baggage and items needed for flight safety.
The license runs until the authorized transactions are completed or October 28, whichever comes first. Within 10 business days of its expiry, Iraqi Airways must give OFAC its passengers’ names and passport numbers and what it spent in Iran on fuel, maintenance and airport services, according to Shafaq News and IranWire.
OFAC can revoke or change it at any time, including if Iraq fails to keep its commitment to restrict Iranian flights entering or crossing Iraqi airspace. Washington has not publicly confirmed the license, and AeroCorner found no published Treasury statement on it.
Reality check
Iraqi Airways describes the new routes as serving religious, medical and educational travel. The license, as reported, allows only Iranian pilgrims, which is a much narrower market. It also expires on October 28 unless OFAC extends it, so the daily schedule is only as durable as that paperwork.
Iranian airlines are back in Najaf too, except Mahan
Iranian carriers were back in Najaf before Iraqi Airways reached Tehran. On October 2, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s office said Iranian airlines other than Mahan Air may operate up to 40 flights a day to and from Najaf, welcoming “the positive response shown by the US government” to Iraq’s request for an exemption.
The first of those flights, operated by Caspian Airlines, landed in Najaf at 5:15 p.m. on October 4, an AFP correspondent reported in Kuwait Times. Flights with Iran remain suspended at Baghdad, Erbil and Sulaimaniyah airports, Al Jazeera reported.
Mahan Air’s exclusion has a long history. The US Treasury designated the airline in October 2011 for providing financial, material and technological support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force.
Why a waiver was needed at all
US sanctions on Iranian aviation do not ground aircraft directly. They target the companies that fuel, handle and service them, the mechanism AeroCorner explained when the US sanctions deadline expired.
Iraq never formally announced a ban when its Iran routes stopped in late September, The National reported. The handlers simply stopped working the flights, fearing US Treasury sanctions, and Iran-aligned militias and parties then staged protests and threatened sit-ins at Iraqi airports.
Elsewhere, Iran’s options have narrowed. The UAE suspended all Iranian airline flights on September 24, and Turkey is now the main destination for flights in and out of Iran, according to AFP.
Iran has filed a complaint over the US sanctions with the International Civil Aviation Organization, the UN aviation agency. Whether OFAC will extend the Iraqi Airways license past October 28 has not been reported.
Sources and references used for research and fact-checking.
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About the Author
Tim is the owner and lead editor of AeroCorner since 2019, overseeing aviation content covering aircraft, airlines, airports, and the broader aviation industry. Through years of researching, writing, editing, and publishing aviation-focused content, he has developed extensive practical knowledge of commercial aviation and air travel. Based in Asia and a frequent traveler himself, Tim also brings firsthand passenger experience to AeroCorner’s coverage. Outside of publishing, he has also explored aviation firsthand through hands-on flight training in New Zealand.