ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States Treasury Secretary on Monday said all Iranian airlines will shut down globally on Wednesday, threatening that enablers who provide fuel, landing services or tickets will be “knocked out of the dollar system.”
“On September 23 … all the Iranian airlines will be shut down around the world,” said United States Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in an interview with US broadcaster CNBC.
Bessent also threatened “enablers” who circumvent the sanctions, outlining that in the event that an Iranian carrier were to land, “you cannot provide them with fuel, you cannot provide them with landing services and you cannot sell them tickets, or you will be knocked out of the dollar system.”
The remarks come as the US economic campaign against Iran, dubbed Operation Economic Outcast, tightens its grip to target Tehran’s illicit revenue streams.
The United States earlier in September imposed sweeping sanctions on “all remaining Iranian airlines,” targeting 36 entities - including 27 active carriers - as part of its ongoing Operation Economic Outcast against Iran, the US Treasury Department said in a statement, warning that any party doing business with the sanctioned entities risks being “cut off from the global financial system.”
The move aims to curtail carrier activity “supporting Iran's aviation sector,which the regime uses to move weapons, personnel, and illicit cargo," including "covert front companies, foreign intermediaries, and deceptive transshipment routes that Iran relies on to obtain U.S.-origin aircraft and sensitive technology."
A day after the sanctions sweep, Gholamhossein Darzi, the Ambassador and Chargé d'Affaires of Iran in a letter to the UN Security Council said the US sanctions against 27 Iranian airlines and entities active in Iran's civil aviation sector constitute an act of “economic terrorism, collective punishment, and crimes against humanity,” and a “flagrant violation of the UN Charter and fundamental rules of international law,” according to semi-official Mehr news agency.
In late August the US treasury moved to target five sectors, including aviation, digital assets, gold, technology and maritime restrictions, in addition to sanctions against the Dubai branch of the second largest bank in Egypt “that funneled more than $1.8 billion into the regime” in addition to two other banks, including Russia's state-controlled VTB Bank in mid-September and Turkey’s Golden Global Bank in early September for funneling “millions” to Iran.
The pressure is increasingly visible through regional financial centers. Turkey on Friday revoked the operating license of the Istanbul branch of Iran’s Bank Mellat following a series of US measures aimed at restricting Tehran’s access to the international financial system.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei on Sunday denounced the “brutal economic war,” accusing the US of “looking past sanctioning of an entire nation’s livelihood” in attempting to “stop Iranian officials from supposedly shopping at an American wholesale club.”
Alongside the economic sanctions, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday in an interview with Fox News that he was in a “deciding mode” over Iran, outlining options ranging from further military action and allowing Iran to “rot economically.”
“My question is if and when do I blow the entire nation up? They better behave,” Trump said, adding he was open to meet with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is set to participate in the annual UN General Assembly, as he prepares to meet with Persian Gulf leaders on the sidelines of the Assembly on Tuesday.
