Kurdistan’s Sulaimaniyah sets first foreign flight since Iraqi embargo lifted

Sulaimaniyah (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Kurdistan’s Sulaimaniyah airport on Tuesday sat on its first foreign flight since Baghdad lifted an embargo imposed on the region’s airport since September, it declared in a statement.

Alsumaria News, quoting the statement, said a flight to Oman is scheduled for 1:30 pm local time as per a flight timetable sent from Iraqi Airways.

It added that companies were preparing their flight schedules in order to resume their programs.

Last week,  Iraq lifted an embargo it has imposed on Kurdistan Region since the September poll in which the autonomous region voted for independence from the central government.

“The decision came after the local authorities in Kurdistan Region reciprocated to returning the federal authority to Erbil and Sulaimaniyah airports,” said a statement by Iraqi premier Haider al-Abadi’s media office.

The decision, according the the statement, involves the creation of a special directorate for the control of the two airports that is under the federal interior ministry.

As part of the measure, the vetting system and passports departments at both Kurdish airports will be interconnected with the interior ministry.

Iraq imposed an international flights embargo on the two airports after a majority of voters voted in favor of Kurdistan’s independence from Iraq, a step which Baghdad deemed illegal.