File image.
Iran has threatened to disrupt air travel across neighboring countries if governments continue restricting Iranian airlines under a widening United States sanctions campaign, raising the prospect of broader regional disruption as Washington pressures Tehran to accept a negotiated end to the war.
Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, issued the warning on September 25 after several airports in the region stopped accepting Iranian flights.
“If Iran cannot fly and receive airport services, no country in the region will have that possibility either,” Mokhber wrote in a post, without explaining how Iran would enforce the threat.
His warning followed an earlier threat by Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who said on September 23 that neighboring countries cooperating with Washington would face consequences for allowing Iranian flights to be blocked.
Rezaei told Iranian state television that if countries stopped flights from the Islamic Republic, “their airports will have no flights.”
The latest threats from the Islamic Republic came in response to a U.S. campaign to cut Iranian airlines off from the international aviation system.
On September 8, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned 36 aviation-related targets, including 27 Iranian airlines, and warned foreign companies providing aircraft, cargo, financial or other services to those carriers that they could face penalties. Washington said Iranian airlines have been used to transport weapons, military personnel and illicit cargo.
The sanctions began producing direct effects this week. The United Arab Emirates suspended flights by Iranian airlines on September 24, explicitly citing the U.S. measures, while Iraq suspended Iranian flights at Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah.
Azerbaijan also halted services by Iranian carriers, while Mahan Air suspended or lost access to several other routes and airport services.
For Tehran, the restrictions go beyond the loss of passenger connections. They threaten to isolate Iranian airlines from the ground-handling, refueling and airport services needed to operate internationally.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned that foreign airports, fuel suppliers, ground handlers and other service providers assisting sanctioned Iranian carriers could face American penalties, making continued access increasingly difficult.
That explains why Iranian officials have targeted the governments enforcing the restrictions rather than limiting their warnings to Washington.
The aviation dispute is also part of a much wider confrontation over the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. economic and military pressure campaign against Iran.
For now, Iran has not identified specific airports it intends to target or disclosed how it would prevent them from operating. The threats therefore remain statements of deterrence rather than an announced operational plan. Nevertheless, as the Islamic Republic has repeatedly demonstrated during the conflict, its words could quickly translate into action.
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you, americans are getting strangulated, not i.r.iran. those that you are waging a war for also sell drugs to your kids and pimp your young women.
so let’s see what is your next bs move after all those regional airports goes boom. 💥