US Treasury sanctions 27 Iranian airlines and nine foreign firms over aviation sector allegations

The United States Treasury Department has sanctioned 27 Iranian airlines and nine foreign companies, accusing Iran of using its aviation sector to transport weapons, personnel and illicit goods. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the measures under Operation Economic Outcast, warning that any entity doing business with Iran's remaining airlines risks being cut off from the global financial system.

The nine foreign companies are based in countries including the United Arab Emirates, Türkiye, Malaysia and Kazakhstan. Among them are ECT Aviation Support, registered in Sharjah, UAE, and Sky Phoenix, registered in Türkiye. Both are accused of involvement in a procurement network that the Treasury alleges delivered three Boeing 777 aircraft to the previously sanctioned Mahan Air, with the aircraft receiving temporary registrations through ECT Aviation Support and the transfers routed through the UAE and Oman.

Mahan Air, an Iranian carrier accused of facilitating activities by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was also the subject of additional measures targeting cargo service providers and general sales agents that serviced its international flights. The United States separately suspended three authorisations relating to flights involving Iranian airspace, including authorisations permitting foreign airlines to operate US-origin or US-controlled commercial aircraft on flights to Iran.

This action extends a long-running US sanctions campaign against Iran's aviation sector beyond the carriers themselves and into the registration agents, cargo handlers and general sales agents that let a blacklisted airline keep operating internationally. Naming firms in the UAE, Türkiye, Malaysia and Kazakhstan signals that Treasury is treating the procurement chain around aircraft delivery and temporary registration as a sanctionable link, not just the end carrier.

For a sector already cut off from Western aircraft, spare parts and maintenance, this narrows the intermediary routes that had allowed equipment like the three Boeing 777s to reach Mahan Air through third-country registration and transfer arrangements. Treasury officials left open whether companies in countries such as China could face secondary sanctions, which leaves unresolved how far enforcement will reach beyond the parties named this time.

What happens next will depend on whether the newly sanctioned foreign firms lose access to correspondent banking and aircraft-leasing markets, and whether replacement intermediaries emerge in other jurisdictions to fill the same procurement role.