The U.S. Treasury issued sweeping new sanctions against Iran on Tuesday, targeting the country’s airlines and their international service providers as it ramps up its effort to isolate Tehran from the global economy.
The aviation sanctions form a significant part of the Trump Administration’s ”Operation Economic Outcast,” which the White House has described as “an unprecedented campaign to sever every remaining economic lifeline sustaining the Islamic Republic of Iran.” As negotiations have stalled, and with the U.S. and Iran engaged in active hostilities once more, the economic pressure is intended to push Tehran into a deal to end the war.
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned 27 Iranian airlines, accusing them of having “long supported the Iranian regime’s destabilizing activities.” The sweeping measures were largely focused on grounding Mahan Air, which was first sanctioned by the U.S. in 2011 and is also subject to E.U. sanctions. The carrier has long been accused of transporting personnel, equipment, and funds for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
The measures build on OFAC’s April and July actions “targeting persons servicing Mahan Air’s domestic and international flights,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
The U.S. also designated firms based outside of Iran that it said had helped Mahan Air maintain operations by providing goods or services. This action specifically targets “covert front companies, foreign intermediaries, and deceptive transshipment routes that Iran relies on to obtain U.S.-origin aircraft and sensitive technology,” according to the Treasury.
The OFAC also suspended three Iran-related aviation authorizations that “allowed for overflights, and for non-U.S. airlines to fly U.S.-origin or U.S.-controlled commercial aircraft into Iran.”
The sanctions, and their international reach, are intended to “intensify Iran’s economic isolation, to further degrade their military capability, and push them to some kind of a concession or settlement that favors the United States,” Jack Roush, a PhD candidate affiliated with the Iranian History Initiative at the London School of Economics, tells TIME.
Here’s what to know about the latest sanctions, how they extend beyond the borders of Iran, and the economic pressure mounting against Tehran.
Aviation sanctions target Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Turkey, and UAE-based firms
The U.S. Treasury has accused Iran of using front companies and other pass-through entities in third countries in an attempt to evade aviation links back to Tehran and has extended sanctions to nine internationally-based entities it alleges have aided these efforts.
Measures were imposed on two UAE-based commercial entities and a UAE-based individual, as well as one Turkish-based and one U.K.-based firm.
Four cargo providers and general sales agents were also sanctioned, accused of servicing Mahan Air and coordinating shipments on behalf of the airline. Two are based in Turkey, one in Kazakhstan, and one in Malaysia.
The new sweeping sanctions “will exacerbate challenges that Iran already faces in maintaining its fleet,” says Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House.
With the reliance on foreign entities to maintain Iran’s aging fleet, the measures targeting companies outside of Iran will likely damage Tehran’s aviation capabilities, she says, as it will “restrict Iran’s ability to rely on those regional hubs” and could prompt “international carriers [to] further reduce or suspend Iranian services.”
“If that happens, then this becomes a blockade of Iran’s aviation infrastructure, which is quite serious,” says Vakil.
U.S. issues warning to anyone doing business with Iran amid effort to choke Tehran off from global economy
The U.S. Treasury has vowed to isolate any international entity that continues to show support to Mahan Air. “Let this be a warning to anyone doing business with Iran’s remaining airlines, all of which we sanctioned,” Bessent said. “You are at risk of being cut off from the global financial system.”
In recent weeks, the U.S. has imposed sanctions on banking institutions in other countries, accusing the lenders of enabling Iran.
On. Aug. 28, the U.S. moved to cut off Egyptian Banque Misr’s UAE-located branches from the dollar-based financial system. Banque Misr said it is reviewing the notice from the U.S. Treasury and will communicate with the department “to obtain further information and maintain ongoing cooperation.”
Days later, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Turkey’s Golden Global investment bank and two subsidiaries, accusing it of enabling the transfer of oil revenues from China to Iran. Golden Global rejected the allegations, calling them “entirely unfounded and inconsistent.”
The sanctions were significant, marking the first time a bank in a NATO ally had been hit under the current economic campaign, experts told Reuters.
These recent U.S. sanctions on Turkish firms are the latest points of tension between the two countries. In 2019, Turkish state-run lender Halkbank was charged in a Manhattan federal court, accused of participating in a “multibillion-dollar Iranian sanctions evasion scheme.”
The charges—referred to by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as “ugly”—dragged on for years, before a settlement was reached in March. Halkbank was barred from entering transactions that benefit Iran and had to hire a compliance monitor to review its sanctions and anti-money-laundering programs.
The two NATO allies have also clashed in their differences of opinion related to Israel’s operations in Gaza, Trump’s tariff policies, and Washington’s maintained block on F-35 fighterjet sales to Turkey while Ankara still holds Russian-made S-400 air defense systems.
Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida earlier this week said “Turkey is not our friend” as he showed support for the sanctions targeting firms in the country. “Bessent had to crack down on them for actively funding Iranian terrorists,” he claimed.
How corporations in other countries respond to the U.S. measures “is an important test” for the Trump Administration, Roush says, noting that despite Washington’s crackdown on international entities supporting the Iranian economy, some have shown they’re willing to continue doing business with Tehran.
“A lot of these smaller, more boutique firms… They’re more informal. They tend to continue their trade ties or banking ties with Iran. The UAE has done, or well, they’re trying to do a good job of severing these ties with Iran, but other states in the region, like Iraq and Azerbaijan and Turkey, are continuing to trade with Iran,” says Roush. “Iran is an important trading partner for them, and I think it’s going to take a significant amount of diplomatic pressure to impose some kind of a full blockade of Iran.”
How Iran has responded to the aviation sanctions
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations Gholamhossein Darzi on Wednesday argued that Washington’s sanctions amount to “economic terrorism” and “collective punishment,” according to Iran’s Mehr news agency.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s Foreign Minister, dismissed the effectiveness of the “economic D-Day” campaign.
“After 47 years of sanctions, the U.S. went to war with Iran on behalf of Israel. The fallout has been disastrous for America, including its standing worldwide,” he saidTuesday. “After failing to achieve its aims through sanctions or war, Washington’s ‘novel’ solution is… more sanctions. Seriously?”
But experts say the ramped up economic pressure campaign will undoubtedly impact Iran in some way.
The aviation-related measures alone will “make it harder to transport materiel to keep Mahan Air going, and it’ll contribute to regional isolation,” says Roush.
Furthermore, Iran is already feeling the economic impact of the conflict and the U.S. naval blockade on its ports in the Strait of Hormuz.
On Sep. 10, Iran’s Rial currency plummeted in value, hitting a record low open-market rate of 2.34 million rials to the dollar. Inflation has also climbed significantly, with reports indicating rural communities and low-income households are carrying the burden. The country lost around630,000 manufacturing jobs in the first quarter of 2026, according to the Statistical Center of Iran.
“Ultimately, the Iranian people are likely to suffer, because the regime will continue its predatory practice of absorbing the economic resources of the country and channeling it toward its military efforts,” concludes Roush.
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