The pressure of US policies against Iran is accelerating, going beyond restrictions on maritime trade and reaching regional and international airspace. A new US sanctions package entered into force at the beginning of last September, targeting 27 additional Iranian airlines that were not previously included in the sanctions lists.
In a report published by journalist Eli Leon in the Israeli newspaper “Maariv”, strict American warnings were sent to airports, companies and financial institutions in third countries warning them against providing any services to the companies subject to the sanctions. The US Treasury Department confirmed that violating foreign parties will face possible secondary sanctions, including restricting their access to the US financial system, which has caused widespread disruptions in Iranian external air traffic.
The field repercussions appeared quickly. The UAE announced the suspension of Iranian airline flights until further notice to avoid secondary sanctions. According to Reuters and Iranian media, Oman, Georgia, and Azerbaijan imposed similar restrictions or stopped flights completely, while part of Iranian flights heading to Baghdad were halted. Last Friday, the ban expanded to include Najaf, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, and other Iraqi airports.
In a related context, the closure of airspace forced an Iranian plane heading from Tehran to Dushanbe to turn back after Turkmenistan refused to allow it to cross its airspace.
Concerns in Tehran are not limited to air isolation; Iranian journalist Ali Golhaki pointed to estimates indicating the possibility of Washington later moving to target the Iranian land borders if the “air blockade” continues, although there has been no official US confirmation about this yet.
However, indicators of land pressure have begun to appear with the accumulation of hundreds of trucks in recent days at the “Gorbulak” crossing on the Iranian-Turkish border, especially after Tehran resorted to diverting an increasing part of its commercial and transport traffic from the troubled sea and air routes towards the neighboring land crossings, which created congestion and noticeable traffic jams.
On the official level, the Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, issued a strong warning on state television to neighboring countries against the consequences of cooperating with American measures, hinting that Tehran would ensure that those countries’ airports were deprived of “operating flights” if they continued to cut off air communications with Iran.
Thus, the ring is gradually narrowing around Iran’s mobility and commercial capabilities, from the sea to the air, amid growing fears in Tehran about the extension of this ring towards land, which threatens to undermine the remaining bridges of economic and logistical communication with its regional surroundings.
