Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh today reiterated his government’s denial of any involvement in the Syrian Civil War, following US allegations that they were allowing Iran to ship weapons to the Syrian government by way of their airspace.
Iraq is not on particularly good terms with the Assad government in Syria, but Iran is one of their closest allies, and has pushed the US for evidence to back up their allegation that Iranian cargo planes are carrying weapons.
The US doesn’t seem keen on providing such evidence, and instead is demanding that Iraq start boarding Iranian planes to search for the weapons themselves. This would be extremely unusual in international shipping, particularly absence anything but vague US allegations.
These aren’t ships, after all, they are airplanes. Forcing Iran to reroute all direct flights to Syria to stop off in Iraq just so they can be searched to placate the US does not seem a reasonable demand.