Washington Just Sanctioned Every Iranian Airline — But the Regime's Planes Keep Flying While Families Get Grounded
The US Treasury has moved to ground Iran's entire civilian aviation sector — not one airline, all of them. But here's the uncomfortable question buried in this story: sanctions have targeted Iranian carriers for years, and the regime's favorite airline has kept flying anyway. So who actually gets grounded when the sanctions net covers everything?
Bottom Line
THE BOTTOM LINE: This is one of the broadest aviation sanctions actions Treasury has ever taken against Iran, and it signals Washington is using every economic lever now that the ceasefire is dead. But the track record — especially Mahan Air's years of open defiance — suggests the regime's military logistics will adapt while ordinary Iranians and their American relatives bear the day-to-day cost of a country being sealed off from the sky. Whether this pressures Tehran or simply isolates its people is the question the next few months will answer.