Iraq barred a plane carrying Iran's national soccer team from landing at Basra airport on Tuesday, citing US sanctions on Iranian airlines, Reuters reported, quoting two Basra airport officials.
According to the officials, the decision was made by the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority. An Iraqi civil aviation official said Iraq could not risk violating US sanctions on Iranian airlines.
An Iranian consulate official in Basra said the plane landed in the southwestern Iranian city of Abadan instead. The team will now cross the border and travel overland to Basra. Iranian media gave a slightly different account. According to Iran's Mehr news agency, the team's charter flight was scheduled to leave Tehran's Mehrabad airport at noon, but Iraqi authorities withheld final landing approval about an hour before takeoff, and the players stayed at their hotel. The team later took a separate charter flight to Abadan, near the Iraqi border.
Iran, coached by Amir Ghalenoei, is in Basra for a four-team tournament with Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian team. Iran is scheduled to play the Palestinians on November 14 and Iraq on November 17.
The incident highlights the growing impact of US sanctions on Iranian aviation. Washington announced sanctions on any company worldwide that does business with Iranian airlines after September 23, aiming to ground Iran's entire civilian fleet. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that airports servicing Iranian carriers could face sanctions, including exclusion from the US dollar system.
In September, Iraq suspended Iranian flights to Baghdad airport after the US threatened secondary sanctions against airports and service providers handling Iranian carriers. At the time, an Iraqi Transport Ministry source said the government had not made a blanket decision to halt flights between the two countries.
The move comes as the United States and Iran remain locked in a war that began in late February, with diplomatic efforts led by Qatar and Pakistan still underway.
