Iraq barred a plane carrying Iran's national football team from landing at Basra airport on Tuesday, in a decision linked to United States sanctions on Iranian airlines, two Basra airport officials said.

The aircraft turned back and landed at Abadan airport in Iran, and the team will now travel overland to Basra, an Iranian consulate official in Basra said. The team was travelling to Iraq to take part in a four-nation tournament in Basra also involving Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.

Why Iraq refused the flight

An Iraqi civil aviation official said Iraq made the decision because it could not risk violating US sanctions on Iranian airlines. The carrier, Varesh Airlines, said Iraqi authorities cancelled the flight at the last minute despite earlier approval, according to Kurdistan24.

The episode shows how far US aviation sanctions are now reaching into everyday travel in the region. What would normally be a short hop across the border for a visiting sports team instead became a diplomatic incident, with the players forced onto the road for the final leg of the journey.

US sanctions target Iranian airlines

Washington announced sanctions on any global companies doing business with Iranian airlines after 23 September, with the aim of grounding Iran's entire civil fleet worldwide. Iraq in September ordered the suspension of Iranian flights to Baghdad airport after the United States threatened secondary sanctions against airports and service providers that handle Iranian carriers.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that airports servicing Iranian airlines could face sanctions, including exclusion from the US dollar system. The warning was part of a broader effort to tighten restrictions on Iran's transport sector and on foreign entities providing services to sanctioned Iranian airlines.

Sanctions bite beyond politics

The Basra incident underlines that the sanctions are not only a matter for governments and airlines. They are now affecting sporting fixtures, cultural exchanges and ordinary travel between neighbouring countries, as airports and service providers weigh the risk of losing access to the dollar system against the disruption of turning flights away.

For Iran, the refusal is a further sign of its growing isolation in the air. For Iraq, it is a difficult balancing act: a neighbour with deep historical, religious and sporting ties on one side, and the threat of US secondary sanctions on the other. Tuesday's decision suggests that, for now at least, Baghdad is unwilling to test Washington's warning.

The tournament in Basra will go ahead with the Iranian team arriving by road, but the manner of their arrival will be remembered as much as any result on the pitch.