Iran airlines ground flights as US tightens aviation sanctions

TEHRAN — Iranian airlines canceled some international flights after Washington tightened sanctions on Iran’s aviation sector.The United Arab Emirates has suspended flights operated by Iran’s airlines in compliance with US sanctions, according to Iranian media.Georgia and Azerbaijan suspended flights, while routes to Baghdad, Muscat, and Doha were also affected.Several connections to Turkey and China have continued, but many flights to these countries have been canceled, too.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the measures were part of efforts to increase economic pressure on Tehran.Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said sanctions would only strengthen Iran’s resistance to US pressure.Iran warned neighboring countries against complying with the sanctions and threatened reciprocal action, raising the prospect of further disruption to air travel across a region already affected by nearly seven months of the US war on Iran.The warning came after the US threatened airports and aviation service providers with secondary sanctions if they continued doing business with it. On Thursday, all Iranian flights to and from the UAE were canceled, the ISNA news agency reported.“I urge all our neighboring countries not to get involved in the United States adventure. This adventure will very soon end in failure,” Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told Iranian state media.“If a country cooperates with or embarks on adventures with the United States, its airports will no longer be able to operate flights” to Iran, Rezaei said, adding that Iran would ensure airports in countries stopping Iranian flights “cannot function”.The US Department of the Treasury earlier this month announced sanctions against Iran’s remaining airlines as well as foreign companies and intermediaries accused of helping them operate.The measures expanded longstanding restrictions on Mahan Air to cover 27 Iranian airlines and also suspended authorisations that had allowed a number of aviation links with Iran. The US accuses Mahan Air of having links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).