TEHRAN – Iran resumed direct flights from Tehran to Erbil, a city in Iraq’s Kurdistan as a Mahan Air flight touched down on Friday after almost six months of halt.

“Flights connecting Tehran to Erbil restarted today and this was welcomed by the people of the region, as a large number of Iraq's Kurds need to travel to Iran for treatment as well as visiting their relatives,” IRNA quoted Abdullah Saleh, the general manager of the Iran and Kurdistan Region of Iraq relations, as saying.

Many foreign airlines suspended flights to Erbil and Sulaimaniya in September 2017, upon a request from the Baghdad government.

The halt to flights followed an insistence by the Kurdistan Regional Government to go ahead with independence referendum in September 2017.

PHOTO: A view of Erbil International Airport

AFM/MQ