ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq will resume daily flights to Lebanon starting next week, an official at Baghdad’s transport ministry told Rudaw, after the country’s national carrier, Iraqi Airways, had suspended its Beirut route following the outbreak of the Iran war in late February, which triggered renewed escalation on the Lebanon-Israel front.
Maytham al-Safi, spokesperson for the ministry, said Thursday that Iraqi Airways “will resume daily flights to Lebanon starting Tuesday, April 28,” adding that services will operate between Baghdad and Beirut international airports.
For its part, Iraq’s national carrier said in a Thursday statement that the resumption of flights to Beirut is “part of its strategic plan to expand its destination network and strengthen air links with regional capitals,” following the recent regional escalation.
Flights between Iraq and Lebanon were suspended after the United States and Israel launched a widescale air campaign against Iran on February 28, targeting more than 17,000 sites across the country over six weeks.
In response, Tehran carried out drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting alleged US assets - particularly in Gulf Arab states - as well as launching retaliatory attacks against Israel.
The Iranian response also involved armed groups aligned with the Tehran-led ‘Axis of Resistance,’ with several factions claiming responsibility for attacks on alleged US targets in the region, including in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
Moreover, the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon in early March launched an initial attack on northern Israel, followed by hundreds of Israeli air raids on what it said were targets across Lebanon.
However, Beirut’s health ministry reported last week that the death toll from Israeli strikes on Lebanon since early March has reached 2,294, with 7,544 injured, mostly civilians, noting that the figure is not final.
The US and Iran agreed to a Pakistan-mediated ceasefire on April 8, which halted fighting to allow space for talks.
Caught in the crosshairs of the fighting, Iraq had in late February shut down its airspace to reopen them around 40 days later in early April, when the first flights landed in Iraq.
“For the first time after the war and the reopening of Iraqi airspace, two airplanes flew to Iraqi airports,” transportation ministry spokesperson Safi then told Rudaw.
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Hastyar Qadir contributed to this report from Erbil, Kurdistan Region.
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