US hits 27 Iranian airlines with latest sanctions
The targets include Iranian airlines and operators in Malaysia, Turkey, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates, including Mahan Air.
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department announced sanctions targeting Iran’s airline industry on Tuesday, part of an ongoing effort to squeeze the Iranian economy after six months of war.
The department designated 27 Iranian airlines not yet subject to US sanctions and tightened pressure on the previously sanctioned Mahan Air, which it said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has used to transport weapons and personnel.
“Essentially, we're taking the entire aviation sector of the Iranian economy out of the market,” said a Treasury official briefing reporters on condition of anonymity.
Also targeted were front companies and foreign intermediaries based in Turkey, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates that allegedly helped Iran obtain US-origin aircraft and sensitive technology.
“These jurisdictions have been unnoticed for some time, and now we're moving quite directly to essentially cut off those operators from the Western financial system,” the official said.
The Treasury Department also suspended three general licenses that authorized payments for overflights of Iranian airspace and for non-American airlines to fly US-origin aircraft into Iran.
Since announcing the start of Operation Economic Outcast on Aug. 24, the Treasury Department has targeted a Turkish bank and the United Arab Emirates-based branches of an Egyptian bank accused of processing transactions for Iran’s IRGC and shadow banking networks.
The department has yet to target major financial institutions in China, Iran’s largest trading partner and purchaser of its oil. Sanctions could jeopardize a fragile detente ahead of a meeting between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Washington later this month.
Brent, the international benchmark for oil, reached a seven-week high of $99 per barrel on Tuesday morning following attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis on energy facilities in southern Saudi Arabia. On Monday, Trump insisted oil prices “will drop precipitously” once the US wins the war.
This developing story has been updated since initial publication.
