BAGHDAD (Dispatches) -- Iraq’s Coordination Framework, the Shia political alliance, held an emergency meeting Sunday with Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi to confront the government’s decision to suspend Iranian flights to Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil, and Sulaimaniya airports — a move that has ignited a full-blown political crisis and exposed the al-Zaidi government’s vulnerability to American pressure.
The meeting reviewed the decision’s consequences for Baghdad-Tehran relations, political and public reactions, and potential protests. The message was unmistakable: Iraq’s Shia political class will not accept what it views as capitulation to Washington at Tehran’s expense.
Ayatollah Yassin al-Moussawi, a Baghdad Friday prayer leader, delivered a scathing condemnation, calling the ban “devoid of technical justification” and “a sign of surrender to external pressure.” He stressed that most passengers on these flights are Imam Hussein (AS) pilgrims, and no credible security threat justifies grounding them.
Former Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi did not mince words either, calling the airport closures a “major error,” a “retreat from national sovereignty,” and a “sacrifice of national interests and the future.”
Parliamentarian Faleh al-Khazali reminded the government of its debt: Iranian airlines were the only carrier delivering weapons and wounded during the Daesh war. “Iraq’s sovereignty cannot be achieved through external orders,” he said.
Hussein al-Moussawi, deputy media head of Harakat al-Nujaba, listed Iran’s contributions: allowing Iraqi oil to pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz, supplying gas to power stations, and opening its borders and weapons depots to defend Iraq. He called the ban “ingratitude” and proof that “Washington is making decisions for Baghdad.”
The rhetoric escalated quickly. Harakat al-Nujaba Secretary-General Akram al-Ka’abi called on Iraqis to “execute open sit-ins inside Iraqi airports to break the American decision through popular force.” 
A Basra cleric close to resistance factions, Hamid al-Halfi, threatened to “prevent any plane from landing in all Iraqi airports” if the ban is not reversed, declaring “the next step is protesting in front of the airports.”
The flight ban, triggered by U.S. Treasury sanctions targeting Iranian airlines, has stranded thousands of pilgrims, students, and patients.