Trump admin moves to isolate Iran’s ‘entire aviation sector’ with sweeping new sanctions
WASHINGTON, DC: Delivering on what President Donald Trump has promised while switching to financial sanctions as a new war strategy against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the administration has taken aim at the entire Iranian airline sector and foreign businesses.
The Trump administration has shifted toward an aggressive financial and economic pressure campaign against Iran under a new initiative named "Operation Economic Outcast."
Trump admin hits Iran’s airline sector, cuts off services
Trump administration announced sanctions against Iran’s airlines on Tuesday, Sept 8, hitting 27 Iranian airlines and nine service providers and sales agents accused of providing services to Mahan Air, which has been sanctioned since 2011.
The private Iranian airline, Mahan Air, is accused of providing key support to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
The service providers and sales agents sanctioned are in Turkey, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates.
“These jurisdictions have been on notice for some time, and now we’re moving quite directly to essentially cut off those operators from the Western financial system,” a Treasury official said.
Administration has targeted operators in other countries earlier as well for allegedly supporting Mahan Air.
Treasury Department terminates all aviation-related licenses
In addition, the US Treasury Department is “effectively today terminating all licenses that are related to aviation,” the official said.
This includes permissions for payments by airlines flying over Iranian airspace and for non-US airlines using US-made aircraft that are allowed to fly into Iran.
“We’ve also pulled back on a general license for safety and other emergency aviation support,” they said. The US could still allow such support in individual cases if needed.
“Essentially, we’re taking the entire aviation sector of the Iranian economy out of the market,” they said.
The latest measures come as the Trump administration tries to cut off Iran’s sources of money and limit its ability to fund the ongoing war.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other administration officials have also talked about the possibility of changing Iran’s government as part of the pressure campaign.
New sanctions mainly hinder business
Richard Nephew, a former US deputy special envoy for Iran, said the new airline sanctions “could be meaningful but mostly as a way of making it hard to engage in clandestine procurement and similar given the blockade” the US has maintained in the Strait of Hormuz.
“Tourism has dried up, not surprisingly, so this mainly hinders business and cargo transfers,” he told CNN. “If we take the next stop and threaten airports providing services, (it) could reduce overall transit.”
