US issues sweeping sanctions against Iranian airlines, foreign businesses

The Trump administration on Tuesday announced new sanctions against all of Iran’s airlines and nearly a dozen foreign companies doing business with Iran’s Mahan Air, which had earlier been sanctioned for its ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The sanctions are part of Operation Economic Outcast, a financial pressure campaign that the administration launched last month as the military front of the more than six-month war stalled out.

The newest sanctions target 27 Iranian airlines and nine entities, cargo service providers and general sales agents that the Treasury Department said the IRGC has used to obtain American aircraft or other U.S.-origin aviation materials.

This includes sanctioning several firms based in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates for helping Mahan Air secure at least three Boeing B-777 aircraft this summer. The aircraft originated from a retired fleet and passed through ECT Aviation Support UAE, where they received temporary registrations, the Treasury Department said.

Mahan Air was originally sanctioned in 2011 for being a critical asset for the IRGC, the military branch tasked with ensuring the survival of the Islamic Republic, responsible for global terrorist attacks and a sponsor of proxy military groups across the Middle East.

“Under Operation Economic Outcast, we promised severe consequences for those providing financial lifelines to the Iranian regime,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement.

“Today, we followed through on that promise with sanctions on companies that continue to support Mahan Air. Let this be a warning to anyone doing business with Iran’s remaining airlines, all of which we sanctioned today: You are at risk of being cut off from the global financial system.”

Other sanctions targeted Ali Mohamed Mohamed Mahran, a UAE-based Egyptian national who serves as the chief executive of ECT Aviation Support UAE, and the British unit of the firm.

The Treasury Department also sanctioned Turkey-based firms that have coordinated shipments, including drone components and industrial equipment destined for Iran, on behalf of Mahan Air, and it sanctioned a Turkey-based entity that has served as a general sales agent for Mahan Air and coordinated shipments on behalf of the blacklisted airline.

Other sanctioned entities with ties to Mahan are based in Malaysia and Kazakhstan.

As a result of the sanctions, all property and interests in the U.S. of the sanctioned entities are blocked, and Americans are generally blocked from doing business with the blacklisted entities.

Bessent has promoted the administration’s economic pressure campaign against Iran as an “economic D-day” that has the goal of financially asphyxiating the Iranian regime.

One of the first major actions targeted a UAE-based branch of an Egyptian bank , and the U.S. later announced sanctions against the Turkey-based Golden Global Bank and its subsidiaries. The Treasury Department said Golden Global Bank facilitated tens of millions of dollars’ worth of transactions for the IRGC.