New US sanctions shut down Iranian flights

DUBAI: Iranian airlines were barred from neighbouring countries including the UAE and Oman on Thursday (Sep 24) in response to new US sanctions, the first big impact of a shift in US policy to target companies in third countries that do business with Iran.

The General Civil Aviation Authority of the United Arab Emirates, the Middle East’s biggest travel hub, said that as a result of the new US policy it was suspending all flights by Iranian airlines until further notice.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that flights had also been shut down to Oman, Georgia and Azerbaijan, and to the Iraqi capital Baghdad. It said authorities were working to route flights to another Iraqi airport, in Najaf, a major Shi’ite Muslim religious pilgrimage site.

Washington had announced it would put sanctions on any global companies doing business with Iranian airlines after Sep 23, with the aim of grounding Iran’s entire civil fleet worldwide.

Other countries in the Gulf region also appeared to have restricted flights.

Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport listed scheduled arrivals and departures on Thursday to and from countries including Afghanistan, Armenia, China, Iraq, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Türkiye. But no flights appeared to be listed to or from the nearby Gulf states, with which Iran has long had some of its most important business and travel ties.

Iran has suggested that enforcement of a US-mandated air blockade would lead to potential escalation. On Wednesday, a senior Iranian official threatened to make airports “unusable” in any regional country that abides by the US ban.

Separately on Thursday, authorities in Saudi Arabia said they had intercepted intercepted six ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi fighters. The Houthis said they had fired dozens of missiles and drones at Saudi targets. An escalating conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis has emerged this month as the combat zone in the wider Middle East war.