UNITED NATIONS,— Emirati diplomat Lana Nusseibeh, a candidate for the top job at the United Nations, dodged a direct question on Kurdish independence on Tuesday, even though she has openly backed a Palestinian state.

Asked by Rudaw on Tuesday whether she would back Kurdish statehood the way she has backed Palestinian independence, Nusseibeh offered no clear yes or no.

Instead, she said that as secretary-general she would address every item on the Security Council agenda under the UN Charter and the council’s mandate, and that she would support all peoples seeking freedom and dignity, in line with the Charter.

Nusseibeh, 48, has backed for Palestinian self-determination for years. In February 2024, she told the International Court of Justice that a two-state solution was necessary to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

She repeated that position Monday, after Palestine backed her UN bid, saying her career has focused on a political path that lets Palestinians and Israelis live in security and dignity.

The UAE formally put her forward last week, and all six Gulf Cooperation Council states support her run. She served as the UAE’s UN ambassador from 2013 to 2024 and now holds the title of minister of state.

A win would make her the first woman to run the UN, taking over from Antonio Guterres when his term ends this year.

Human rights monitors criticized Nusseibeh’s bid for the UN’s top job on Tuesday, pointing to her role in promoting the country’s foreign policy and her denial of UAE involvement in fueling Sudan’s conflict.

Her bid faces pushback tied to accusations that the UAE armed and backed Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, a militia blamed for mass killings in Sudan’s war.

Former Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth and other rights advocates called Tuesday for her candidacy to be rejected, saying she has shielded the UAE from those accusations.

The UAE rejects any claim that it supports the RSF. Nusseibeh said Sudan would rank among her top concerns in office, promising to push for accountability and a stop to the fighting.

Opponents have also set up a website called “No to Lana,” urging supporters to email national UN missions and push them to block her appointment. The campaign has driven more than 38,000 emails so far.

Observers noted that the UAE stayed silent and offered no criticism when Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa’s forces attacked Kurds in Rojava, Syrian Kurdistan, in January 2026. The UAE was also silent on the massacre of Druze and attacks on Alawites in 2025.

That month, Islamist militias under Syria’s interim government killed Kurdish civilians in Aleppo and in Rojava. But the UAE was quick to condemn Iran, its foe, after a drone strike targeted Kurds in Iraq, a sharp contrast to its silence on the Syrian attacks on Kurds.

A political analyst Henase Karim told iKurd News “how Nusseibeh could be nominated for the role, if she is clearly nationalist and favors Arab and Islamic interests,”

(With files from Reuters | Rudaw | Agencies)

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UAE slams Iran’s attacks on Iraqi Kurds, silent on Syrian Kurds

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CAIRO,— Egypt’s parliament on Monday authorized President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to take “all necessary measures” to help Saudi Arabia defend itself against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement, potentially drawing Cairo deeper into the regional conflict.

Sisi asked lawmakers to authorize military aid if Saudi Arabia sought assistance against the Houthis.

Their advance threatens the Bab el-Mandeb, a vital maritime passage between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden that supports shipping routes to Egypt’s Suez Canal.

At least two-thirds of lawmakers supported the measure, according to an official parliamentary statement. The vote took place behind closed doors, and officials did not release the tally. Riyadh has not publicly requested Egyptian troops.

Taher al-Khouly, deputy head of parliament’s legislative committee, told Reuters that Egyptian forces would deploy to Saudi Arabia in coordination with Riyadh and at its request.

The parliamentary measure did not define the form of support Egypt could provide.

The decision faced opposition at home. The Civil Democratic Movement, a coalition of opposition parties, rejected Egyptian involvement in a regional war and called for Cairo to focus on mediation.

The Egyptian Social Democratic Party said its lawmakers would abstain because the government had not explained the mission’s objectives, duration or cost, while maintaining its support for Saudi Arabia.

Egypt has condemned Iranian and Iran-backed attacks on Gulf countries but has not publicly joined direct combat in the current conflict. Egypt has not joined the defense agreement reached in August by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey.

Ministers from the three countries met in Riyadh earlier this month and agreed to ensure the “rapid deployment” of forces and military capabilities in Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan approved the agreement last week, while Turkey’s parliament began ratification. Senior officials from the three countries met Iranian leaders in Tehran on Monday to seek ways to ease tensions.

Britain said it would send Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets to help shield Saudi urban areas and key facilities from Houthi air strikes.

Egypt Limits Its Role to Defense

Parliament postponed the vote last week while Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and intelligence chief Hassan Rashad traveled to Riyadh to deliver a letter from Sisi to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Sisi said Egypt’s assistance would focus on defending Saudi territory and borders, not attacking Yemen.

Abdelatty later said Cairo supported efforts to resolve the conflict through diplomacy. Senate Speaker Essam Farid described Egypt’s position as “purely defensive,” aimed at protecting Saudi territory, sovereignty, borders and holy sites.

He said the mission would not extend to an attack on Yemen, describing Egypt as “a shield that protects, not a sword that attacks.”

Egypt joined the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen in March 2015, sending warships to protect Red Sea shipping lanes and about 800 ground troops, although its combat role remained limited.

Egypt sent troops to Yemen during a military intervention in the 1960s. It has not mounted another large-scale overseas ground operation since the 1991 Gulf War.

Yahya Ali al-Rai, speaker of Yemen’s Houthi-controlled House of Representatives, urged Egypt’s parliament to reject the proposal, warning that involvement would threaten Egypt’s national security and domestic stability.

Farid said he had also received a letter from Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr, head of Yemen’s Shura Council, which is aligned with the internationally recognized government.

Bin Daghr endorsed Egyptian assistance for Saudi Arabia, stating that the position represented the wishes of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council.

Saudi Arabia is a major political and financial partner of Egypt, providing billions of dollars in aid, central bank deposits and energy supplies under Sisi.

Fighting between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis, who control Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, has intensified in recent weeks, becoming a volatile front in the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Houthi attacks on Riyadh’s international airport and state oil company Saudi Aramco have disrupted flights and oil exports.

Aid organizations reported deteriorating conditions in Yemen, where the prolonged conflict has fueled a severe humanitarian emergency.

Reuters reported in September, citing people familiar with the matter, that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had sought US military assistance.

President Donald Trump declined to authorize strikes against the Houthis, the report said, while Washington offered intelligence sharing and targeting support.

(With files from Reuters)

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ANKARA,— Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants pulled out of four camps in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, known as Southern Kurdistan, marking the first move in a planned disbandment, Turkish security sources said Monday, Reuters reported.

Turkey’s parliament passed a law in August 2026 laying out terms for the PKK’s dissolution, part of a peace process meant to end a decades-long conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and devastated Northern Kurdistan, the predominantly Kurdish southeast region.

The law grants protections to many former fighters who have not committed specific crimes and allows suspended sentences for some convicted of PKK membership, opening a path for their return to civilian life.

Security sources said PKK fighters withdrew starting last Thursday from the Hebat, Yajk, Sabri and Sason camps in the Baze district of Iraq’s Kurdistan Metina region, calling it proof the peace process continues moving forward.

Once all activity ends, PKK members may enter social integration programs covering education, economic support and other fields under the legal framework guiding disbandment, the sources added.

Turkey, which maintains NATO’s second-largest military force, opened peace talks with the PKK in late 2024, though the process almost collapsed this year because of the Iran war and worries about instability across the region.

The PKK launched its armed campaign in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, aiming to build an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey before shifting its goal toward autonomy and Kurdish political rights.

Kurds represent close to 30% of Turkey’s 85 million people, a figure drawn from 2012 data, while Turkish officials say more than 40,000 soldiers and Kurdish guerrilla fighters have died in the fighting.

Last month, Turkey agreed to gradually transfer a military camp used by its forces in Iraqi Kurdistan to the government in Baghdad, part of a broader shift in security arrangements tied to the peace process.

(With files from Reuters)

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After the U.S. Withdrawal, the KRG Has No Option but to Maneuver Politically and Mollify the Ayatollahs

Serwan Zangana | Exclusive to iKurd.net

The Iraqi Kurdish Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein’s statement, “It is the responsibility of the Iraqi government also to protect Kurdistan,” is a plea for protection from the Iraqi government as the region, according to the Kurdish leaders, has become vulnerable after the U.S. withdrawal.

Iran’s involvement in Kurdistan will indeed increase, which could also undermine the Kurds’ status and affect the stability and security of the region. Hussein’s statement reveals the weakness of the Kurdistan Region and its broken government, controlled by the two families of Barzani and Talabani.

In fact, Kurdistan has always been vulnerable, and unfortunately, the ongoing political conflict between the two major parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), has been hindering the advancement of the political process.

The senior Kurdish leaders should have anticipated abandonment by the Americans, as had occurred in the past. However, they failed to connect the past with the present and draw a conclusion that could have helped them prepare for an undesirable outcome in the future.

The Kurdish leaders overlooked these critical links and forgot the catastrophic situations that have been caused by the U.S., and thus, these situations could be repeated.

In addition to the threat of the Islamic State (ISIS), which is the Kurds’ main concern, the Iranian-backed militias are also a threat, as they have conducted drone attacks on Kurdistan without regard for civilian lives.

These militias and groups are established and funded by the Islamic regime of Iran, and the Iraqi government, regardless of its authority, does not have the capability to disarm them.

The government hopes that the militias will willingly disarm and end the existing chaos in the country. However, it is a revolving door: Iran will continue its involvement in Iraq. In fact, the political conflicts in Iraq and Kurdistan and the weakness of the federal and regional governments leave Iraq as fertile ground for Islamic militias’ operations.

Two of the groups, Awfiya Allah and Sayyid Shuhada, agreed to be disarmed, according to Foreign Minister Hussein. It is noteworthy that a few other groups, such as Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq and Kataib Imam Ali, have already agreed to the terms of disarming and restricting their weapons to the government.

However, this will not end the militias’ threat to Iraq’s stability. The Iranian Quds Force commander, Esmail Qaani, outlined the plan after the U.S. withdrawal when he stated, “The children of the resistance maintain a presence in one of the region’s most critical areas, Iraq… as they continue on their path.”

The Kurdish leaders are afraid of doomsday—the end of their power, which stands on a hollow foundation. Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani’s statement reveals the desperation.

“We in the Kurdistan Region will always be cooperative and supportive of every step that strengthens Iraq’s sovereignty, security, and stability,” Nechirvan stated.

The Kurdistan Region Government (KRG) has no option but to cooperate with the federal government, as the Peshmerga have no capability to withstand external pressures, while Kurdish division has also contributed to the fragility of the region.

In fact, the independence referendum of 2017, which was opposed by the international community, including Iraqi Arabs, and subsequently responded to militarily by the Iraqi government and Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization militias, revealed the inability of the Kurds to defend the region.

However, with the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, the obstacles will be removed, and Iran’s influence will continue to increase. While the majority of Arab Shia are ideologically aligned with the Islamic regime of Iran, the Kurds generally have a bloody history with the Iranian regimes, including the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Kurdistan’s stability is measured by the demands of the Kurds, and such demands are factors contributing to tension in the region. The region’s hostilities against the Kurds are triggered by the Kurdish goals of self-determination.

It is noteworthy that Abu Alaa al-Walai of the Iran-backed militia Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada stated, “We assure our brothers in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq that their security and stability are an integral part of Iraq’s security and stability, and that any threat facing the region is a national concern for all Iraqis.”

However, how long will this brotherhood last? Do they call the Kurds brothers only to serve the interests of Iraqi Arabs and Muslim communities? Do the Muslim militias and groups believe in the same rights for the Kurds as for the Palestinians?

The security and stability of Iraq and Kurdistan depend on the interests of the Islamic regime of Iran, and the Iraqi militias are part of Iran’s strategy in Iraq. The militias’ positions in Iraq are clear. As he stated in the past, al-Walai said, “All Americans in Iraq will be hostages if a war breaks out between the U.S. and Iran. Because we will stand with Iran, period.”

Regardless of the small number of Iran-backed militias that have agreed with the Iraqi government on disarmament, they will always remain vital and fueled by Iran. Clearly, the U.S. withdrawal leaves a space for Iran and provides more opportunities to strengthen its proxies in Iraq and focus on a different strategy in post-U.S.-withdrawal Iraq.

Iran’s long-term strategy in expanding the Shii ideology has become even clearer as Commander Qaani said that they will continue their fight across the region and West Asia: “From Afghanistan to Yemen, and from Iran to Gaza and Lebanon,” Qaani stated.

Both Iraq and Kurdistan live at the mercy of Iran, as its influence is entrenched in the country, represents the Islamic Shii ideology, and is spiritually connected to Iraq’s majority Shia population. Ultimately, the stability of Kurdistan, which is tied to the stability of Iraq, is impossible as long as Iran and its proxies operate in Iraq.

However, while Kurdistan’s government is unable to eliminate the threat of Iran’s Islamic regime, it can only maneuver politically in the hope of mollifying the Ayatollahs’ outrages.

Serwan Zangana, a contributing writer for iKurd.net, lives in Virginia, U.S. He serves as a correction officer.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of iKurd.net or its editorial team.

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ABU DHABI,— The United Arab Emirates prosecutor general said Saturday that the co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 tried to launch a “terrorist” attack during the flight, according to the UAE state news agency WAM.

The co-pilot has been named as Hammam al-Hammami, an Omani national, a source with direct knowledge told Reuters.

In the cockpit, the co-pilot struck the pilot with a crash axe and tried to seize control of the aircraft, the prosecutor general said.

Crash axes are usually kept in the cockpit for use during emergencies, such as crashes.

The probe continues into the circumstances of the incident, the motives and any related connections, and the examination of physical and digital evidence, he added.

Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, the UAE prosecutor general, made the first comments by Emirati authorities to describe the incident as an attempted “terrorist” attack.

Passengers and crew overpowered the co-pilot on Wednesday, averting disaster after he attacked the captain.

Israeli officials said the attack was an apparent attempt to crash the plane, which had more than 170 passengers and crew on board.

A reserve flydubai pilot who was on the flight took the controls and landed the plane at Tabuk airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia. Saudi authorities then detained the co-pilot there.

Flydubai said the circumstances remain under investigation and that it was not in a position to comment further, a spokesperson said.

An Israeli government official told Reuters earlier that Israeli investigators will join Emirati authorities in the UAE-led investigation.

The inquiry will look into what happened, the suspect’s motives and his background.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Israel is checking whether the co-pilot acted under anyone’s direction. He warned that anyone involved would pay a heavy price.

Netanyahu said Thursday that the co-pilot, an Omani national he identified, had undergone radical Islamist indoctrination and appeared suicidal. He said a motive had not yet been established.

Most passengers on board were Israeli nationals.

The aircraft dropped about 16,625 feet in just over 30 seconds while flying over Saudi Arabia on its journey from the UAE to Israel, according to Flightradar24 flight-tracking data. The route is popular with Israeli travelers.

(With files from Reuters)

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JERUSALEM, Israel,— Israeli passengers flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv landed safely in Israel on Wednesday after a co-pilot, an Omani national, stabbed the plane’s captain and attempted to crash the aircraft, a situation that travelers and crew members stopped by storming the cockpit, Israeli officials said.

The flydubai jet, operating as flight FZ1073, dropped nearly 14,000 feet in under 30 seconds during the struggle, officials said.

Passengers and crew rushed into the cockpit, subdued the co-pilot, and allowed a second set of flydubai pilots traveling on the same flight to take control and land the plane safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

More than 10 hours after the ordeal, the travelers reached Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on a replacement flydubai aircraft.

Many called their survival a miracle and described a chaotic fight to keep the plane from crashing.

Israeli officials said investigators have not yet determined why the attacker acted. Israel and the United Arab Emirates, home to Dubai, established formal diplomatic relations under the 2020 Abraham Accords.

The episode raised fresh worries about aviation safety in a region shaped by years of conflict and led Israel to announce tighter screening of pilots flying into the country.

Passenger Lital Shachaf called the outcome a miracle. “It was awful, crazy, and we thank God that we survived it, we didn’t think we will make it but thank God we are in Israel,” she said.

“We are back home. And we are happy to see everyone here.”

Israel’s national ambulance service said a 51-year-old man was brought to a hospital in Israel for treatment of upper-body injuries and was listed in mild condition.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the event as a serious security incident and said Saudi authorities would question the co-pilot. Flydubai said in a statement that the cause of the incident remained unclear and cautioned against premature speculation.

An Israeli official said the co-pilot was a citizen of Oman. Omani authorities had not issued a response.

Israeli officials praised the passengers, crediting them with preventing a far worse outcome. Netanyahu said 174 people were aboard the flight from Dubai, the majority of them Israeli citizens.

President Donald Trump said he had a lengthy phone call with Netanyahu on Wednesday about the incident.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump gave a detailed version of events, adding, “This is the story that I heard. I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s the story that I got from Bibi.”

A spokesperson for Netanyahu told Reuters that the injured captain, identified by the prime minister’s office as Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, was lying on the floor covered in blood when he managed to release the cockpit door lock.

For Machchhar, now hailed as a hero for helping avert a crash of a flydubai jet bound for Israel, aviation was never part of his childhood dreams.

Passengers who rushed in found the co-pilot striking the plane’s control panel, the spokesperson said.

Asaf Rajuan, one of the passengers who helped hold down the attacker, said he acted on instinct. “This is something you do without thinking, just running to save your daughter’s life, your family’s life,” he said, his forehead still marked with blood from the struggle.

Netanyahu’s office released footage of the prime minister embracing another passenger, Yaniv Hayun, at Ben Gurion Airport.

The office said Hayun had forced his way into the cockpit. “I see you and I see a lion, a big hero,” Netanyahu told him. Hayun was still wearing the blood-stained shirt from the flight.

Flydubai runs daily round-trip flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv, a route widely used by Israeli travelers. The flight normally crosses Saudi and Jordanian airspace.

This is not the first time a flight between Israel and the UAE has been diverted to Saudi Arabia.

A flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Riyadh in September 2025 because of a medical emergency, Israeli media reported at the time.

Officials at Tabuk airport, where Wednesday’s flight landed, said both pilots were hospitalized with injuries.

The incident added to security concerns in Israel just weeks before the country’s first election since the October 7, 2023, attacks led by Hamas, with national security a central issue in the campaign.

Far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote on X that terrorism is a force that cannot be negotiated with.

Israeli media outlets gave conflicting accounts of the episode, with some reporting that a pilot had attempted suicide by trying to crash the plane.

Early reports from some outlets identified the pilots as Omani and Emirati nationals, while others said they were Russian and Ukrainian.

Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for Netanyahu, told Reuters that Israel plans to verify the identities of pilots on all flights entering the country and conduct security checks on them going forward.

Netanyahu met Sunday with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during a rare trip to the Gulf nation.

Israel and the UAE have built close security, military, and economic ties since normalizing relations.

Earlier this year, Israel supplied the UAE with Iron Dome air defense systems along with Israeli personnel to operate them, support that came after Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iran and Iran responded with attacks of its own.

The UAE government had not commented on the flydubai incident as of Wednesday.

The Dubai-owned airline said in a statement that an altercation took place in the cockpit, prompting the flight to divert to Tabuk, where it landed without further incident.

The UAE’s aviation regulator, the GCAA, said the flight experienced a security incident that was brought under control.

(With files from Reuters)

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ERBIL,— Erbil and Sulaimani airports in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, halted Iranian flights starting Friday, two sources told Reuters.

Iraq’s state news agency reported Friday that Najaf International Airport had also suspended the flights.

With these latest actions, three airports joined the shutdown Friday, and sources and state media said flights to and from Iran are now suspended at all four Iraqi airports that had handled them: Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil and Sulaimani.

This follows a similar step taken earlier in the week at another Iraqi airport.

Earlier in the week, two separate sources told Reuters that Iraq’s government had ordered its civil aviation authority to stop Iranian flights at Baghdad airport starting Wednesday.

At that time, the sources said officials were weighing whether to send Iranian flights to Najaf instead.

The United States had said it would place sanctions on companies worldwide that keep doing business with Iranian airlines after September 23. The goal, Washington said, is to ground Iran’s entire civilian aircraft fleet globally.

The United Arab Emirates, the Middle East’s biggest travel hub, said Thursday it was also halting all Iranian airline flights until further notice.

(With files from Reuters)

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NAJAF,— Najaf Airport is still receiving Iranian passenger planes, even as Baghdad International Airport has halted taking them after private ground-handling firms there chose to follow tough U.S. sanctions, sources told Ultra Iraq.

The information came from officials inside Iraq’s Civil Aviation Authority and the Coordination Framework, a political bloc.

An aviation authority source said the agency itself has taken no action against flights to or from Iran and has not ordered a halt to services for Iranian airlines.

“The authority has not issued any measures to date concerning flights to or from Iran, nor has it suspended services for them. This decision was made by international companies operating at Baghdad Airport,” the source said.

The source said that if the authority ever issued such an order, every airport in Iraq would have to follow it.

He said two firms working at Baghdad Airport, MASIL Ground Handling Services and Kuwait-based National Aviation Services, chose on their own to stop serving Iranian carriers starting September 23 in order to follow U.S. sanctions rules. Both companies notified Iranian airlines ahead of time, the source said.

Najaf Airport uses a different foreign firm, LAM, which has not taken any similar step against Iranian planes, according to the source.

A senior Coordination Framework official backed up this account, saying whether ground services keep running for Iranian airlines depends on each company’s own policy.

“Some fear being subjected to international sanctions, while others have no international ties that would expose them to such risks,” the official said, adding that it comes down to where a company does business, whether in Iraq, Iran or nations already under U.S. sanctions.

The official said Baghdad Airport depends on handling firms such as Menzies Aviation, working with MASIL, and NAS, and that their global business links pushed them to stop helping Iranian carriers there.

Najaf has kept receiving Iranian flights because the firm running services there is different and may still work with Iranian partners, the official said.

He stressed that halting Iranian flights at Baghdad does not mean Iraq has banned Iranian aviation altogether. The problem, he said, is limited to Baghdad Airport and the sanctions risk facing the companies based there.

Flight-tracking data shows Najaf departure

On Thursday, Sept. 24, iKurd.net News reviewed live data from Flightradar24, a flight-tracking service, and found an Iranian aircraft in the air heading from Najaf toward Iran. The tracker did not list a final destination, but the route pointed toward Tehran or Mashhad.

The aircraft was identified as a Boeing 737-524, tail number EP-RBC, flying as AVA Airlines flight AXV9243.

Private firms, not the state

Iraqi government sources said Wednesday, that the halt was ordered by private businesses worried about sanctions, not by the government.

The state-run Iraqi News Agency cited sources saying the issue traces back to ground-handling and support firms under contract with Iranian airlines that refused service out of fear of penalties.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he expected every remaining Iranian airline to stop flying within two days because of new U.S. secondary sanctions on Iran’s aviation sector.

Speaking to CNBC after meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, Bessent said Iranian carriers would halt operations September 23, since planes could not be refueled, serviced or sold tickets without putting service providers at risk of losing access to the dollar financial system.

The Treasury Department had already sanctioned 27 Iranian airlines on September 8 as part of what it called a campaign to economically isolate Iran.

The list included Iran Airtour, Iran Aseman, Qeshm Air, Kish Air and Sepehran, which Washington accused of aiding the Iranian government and military, including moving weapons, personnel and illegal cargo.

(With files from ultrairaq.ultrasawt.com)

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NEW YORK,— Turkey and Iraq said Wednesday they had reached a deal for Turkish troops to gradually hand over a military base in Bashiqa, in northern Iraq, to Iraqi government control.

The announcement followed talks in New York, where the two countries also agreed to end the presence of what they called “outlawed armed elements” in northern Iraq.

The agreement came after Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. In a joint statement, the two sides said they would strengthen security cooperation.

The statement said the leaders agreed to fully restore state authority in Sinjar and to remove outlawed foreign armed groups from the area, a reference to Kurdish militants who operate in that mountainous region.

Turkey is currently pursuing a peace process aimed at disarming fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, to end a conflict that has lasted for decades.

Under the deal, Turkish forces will withdraw from the Bashiqa-Zelikan base near Mosul in stages, following an agreed timeline and security steps taken by Iraq.

An Iraqi military commander familiar with the discussions said the pullout from Bashiqa and a nearby smaller base is expected to finish by the end of this year. Turkey has not confirmed that timeline.

Turkish troops first arrived near Mosul in 2015. Ankara said the deployment was meant to train and protect Iraqi forces, along with Sunni Arab, Turkmen and Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State group, which had taken over Mosul in 2014.

The move angered Baghdad, which called for the troops to leave, while Turkey insisted it was backing the fight against the militants. Turkey continues to operate other bases in the region, which it says protect its national security.

Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria and Iraq, praised the agreement, saying it served both Iraqi sovereignty and Turkish security interests.

The joint statement also noted that the two leaders discussed trade and broader ties, calling for faster action on existing agreements and ongoing strategic projects.

The statement made no mention of Turkish troops withdrawing from Iraqi Kurdistan (Bashur Kurdistan), where Turkey maintains more than 100 military bases and thousands of troops, according to reports.

Political analyst Henase Karim told iKurd.net News that, “Based on history, Turkey has never withdrawn from any territory it has occupied and will not withdraw from Iraqi Kurdistan, Syrian Kurdistan, Northern Cyprus, Libya, or other occupied areas.”

Some observers say these territorial disputes with Turkey will only be resolved through military force.

(With files from Reuters)

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BAGHDAD,— Iraq has ordered a halt to Iranian flights into Baghdad airport starting Wednesday, two sources told Reuters. The move follows a U.S. warning to punish any airport that provides services to Iranian airlines.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that Iranian carriers would be grounded by September 23 because of the threat of secondary sanctions against companies that provide air services.

The warning comes seven months into the conflict between the United States and Iran.

Two sources familiar with the situation said Iraqi officials are considering rerouting Iranian Airways flights from Baghdad to Najaf airport instead. Both sources asked not to be named given the sensitive nature of the issue. The flight suspension is set to take effect at midnight Wednesday.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported earlier, citing the country’s Civil Aviation Organization, that flights between Tehran and Baghdad, as well as Tehran and Muscat, would be canceled beginning Wednesday.

Other international routes, including flights to Istanbul, will continue as scheduled, the agency said.

A spokesperson for Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization told the semi-official ISNA news agency that Iranian passengers are currently being denied entry at the airport in Oman, adding that talks on the matter are underway.

Bessent told CNBC that airports serving Iranian planes would be barred from providing fuel, landing services or ticket sales, or risk losing access to the U.S. dollar system.

(With files from Reuters)

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