Treasury sanctions the rest of Iran’s airlines under Operation Economic Outcast

The U.S. Treasury on 8 September sanctioned 36 targets tied to Iran's aviation sector and said it had now listed every remaining Iranian airline. The action sits inside Operation Economic Outcast, the campaign Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has used to cut what he calls financial lifelines to Tehran in the seventh month of the war. OFAC also suspended three Iran-related aviation authorisations and issued a wind-down licence for deals with the newly blocked names.

"Today, we followed through on that promise with sanctions on companies that continue to support Mahan Air," Bessent said. "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." FinCEN, Treasury's financial-intelligence bureau, issued a separate alert telling banks to report procurement networks that serve Iranian aviation.

Mahan Air has been under U.S. sanctions since 2011. Washington says the private carrier moves IRGC personnel, drones and weapons while presenting itself as a civilian airline. The European Union has sanctioned it for flying drones used in Ukraine. Tuesday's package went beyond Mahan. A Treasury official told reporters the list covers 27 Iranian airlines and nine service providers and sales agents in Turkey, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates. Those jurisdictions, the official said, "have been on notice for some time."

The legal hook is an 24 August determination under Executive Order 13902 that treated Iran's aviation sector as a sanctions target. OFAC built on April and July listings against people who serviced Mahan flights. On Tuesday it also pulled back licences that had allowed non-U.S. airlines to take U.S.-origin or U.S.-controlled aircraft into Iran, and it tightened a general licence that had covered safety and emergency aviation support. Case-by-case exceptions remain possible. The official summary was blunt: the United States is taking the Iranian aviation sector out of the market.

Among the SDN additions published the same day was Ibrahim Ali Mohamed Mohamed Mahran, an Egyptian national listed as linked to ECT Aviation Support LLC in the UAE. Earlier 2026 actions had already named Chinese and Russian general sales agents. The pattern is consistent. When the main carrier is already blocked, Treasury hunts the ticket offices, cargo agents and spare-parts cut-outs that keep airframes flying.

The wartime context is the point. U.S. and Iranian forces have traded fire in the Gulf. Iran has talked of a restricted zone inside the Persian Gulf. Hormuz traffic has fallen. Civilian aviation is both a sanctions target and a humanitarian channel. Grounding carriers and killing overflight payments will make it harder for ordinary Iranians to leave, and harder for the IRGC to move crews and parts on scheduled metal. Treasury has chosen that trade.

What is new on 8 September is completeness. Previous rounds picked at Mahan and a few agents. This round claims the rest of the fleet, the foreign GSAs, the licences that still let Western-origin jets touch Iranian concrete, and a FinCEN alert that turns every compliance desk into a reporting post. Banks in Dubai, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur and Almaty now have to decide whether a ticket sale or a spare-part invoice is worth an OFAC letter.