🇮🇶/ 🇮🇷 | Reactions from Iraq are now coming after Najaf’s Friday Imam and the Nujaba Movement over the suspension of Iranian flights to Iraq.

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi described the closure of Iraqi airports to Iranian flights as “a major mistake, a surrender of national sovereignty, and a sacrifice of Iraq’s national interests and future,” adding that “retreating is better than insisting on the mistake.”

The Karbala Provincial Council said the decision has already caused losses in the tourism sector, with merchants filing complaints and a number of Iraqi students affected by the suspension.

Faleh al-Khazali, head of the Muntaṣirun parliamentary bloc, said the Iranian airlines banned by the Iraqi government at America’s request were the same airlines that transported weapons to Iraq and evacuated wounded members of the Iraqi security forces to Iran from 2014 until liberation, adding that “Iraq being master of its own affairs cannot be achieved through foreign dictates.”

Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khamenei, said the enemy is trying to compensate for its battlefield defeat by dismantling the “Unity of the Fronts” from within, arguing that this division became visible in Najaf after the airport, which served as a gateway for the visitors of Imam Ali (A), was closed. He added: “Legitimacy does not come from Washington; it comes from the soil of Najaf and the blood of the martyrs.”

Iranian MP Mahmoud Nabavian said the “US-backed government in Iraq” had suspended flights from Iran to Najaf and Baghdad, adding that “the free people of Iraq will respond to this measure,” and that Iraq’s Coordination Framework bears responsibility for choosing the prime minister.

Abu Husam al-Sahlani, executive deputy of the Badr Organization, strongly condemned what he described as America’s authoritarian and unjust actions in confiscating Iraq’s national will, saying they reflect the arrogant nature of the US administration.

🔹@enemywatch