Fly Baghdad prepares legal challenge to US Government

Iraqi airline Fly Baghdad is gearing up for a legal challenge to the US government, after Washington sanctioned the carrier for allegedly ferrying Iranian weapons and personnel around the Middle East.

The airline strongly denies the charges, which led to it being grounded in late January after its bank accounts were frozen as part of the sanctions.

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which oversees sanctions against Iran, accused the airline and its CEO, Basheer Abdulkadhim Alwan al-Shabanni, of providing materiel support to Iranian-backed militias.

Specifically, it alleged that Fly Baghdad had provided assistance to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard and its proxy groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, by transporting personnel and weapons  to Syria and Lebanon.

The sanctions led to Fly Baghdad suspending flights briefly after the announcement, then briefly restarting them. It suspended them again a few days later following the freezing of its bank accounts by the Iraqi government.

The airline has furiously rejected the US allegations: “Fly Baghdad denounces this decision as it is not based on any material or moral evidence that could convict the company. The company has worked for years under the direct supervision of the Iraqi government, represented by the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority and the Ministry of Transport,” it said in a statement.

“How can a passenger airline fly to countries' airports transporting weapons and fighters and ammunition without knowledge of the state?” added Fly Baghdad’s aviation security manager, Nameer Al-Qaisi, speaking to Abu Dhabi’s The National newspaper.

However, on January 25, it said it had halted all flights at the request of the Iraqi government while a government investigative committee looked into the matter.

The airline subsequently told the Arab World Press news agency that the company’s board of lawyers were preparing an appeal against the US action.

Fly Baghdad operates operates nine Boeing 737s, in -700, -800 and -900ER variants. It also has single examples of MHIRJ CRJ200 and CRJ900 regional jets, although these are believed not to be operational.