US Treasury Says Iranian Airlines Will Be Shut Down Worldwide From Wednesday

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that all Iranian airlines will be shut down from Sept. 23¹. He said Washington intends to impose secondary sanctions on companies providing them with aviation services². Foreign companies that continue providing services to Iranian airlines will face the risk of US secondary sanctions starting Wednesday¹¹. The threat extends explicitly to foreign airports and fuel suppliers¹³.

Bessent also said three banks have been sanctioned, among them the Dubai branch of one institution, and warned of a US banking ban³. The Treasury Department took aim at targets for supporting Iran’s aviation sector^6,10. He set out the measures after talks concluded on Sunday night with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, describing the consequences for those who continue to deal with the carriers¹².

How the mechanism works

The announcement does not itself physically prevent Iranian aircraft from flying⁵. Instead, the threat of secondary sanctions is designed to make servicing those aircraft commercially impossible, by putting any foreign airport, fuel supplier or service provider that deals with them at risk^5,11.

Coverage frames the measures as cutting Iranian airlines off from global aviation networks⁹, and as a US threat to ground them worldwide from Wednesday⁴. The Treasury has said it will impose secondary sanctions on companies assisting Iran’s airlines⁸, with the shutdown date reported consistently as September 23^6,7.

What to watch

The first compliance effects are already visible. Government sources say Iraq will suspend US-sanctioned Iranian airlines¹⁰. Bessent has said China is very engaged on Iran sanctions, including the airline shutdown effort⁶, which matters because the measure only works if the largest economies outside the US enforce it.

The wider setting is a broad offensive that began with strikes on Iran’s supreme leader and senior military officials^6,7. For companies outside Iran the practical question from Wednesday is the scope of compliance: which services, to which carriers, at which airports, now carry US sanctions risk^5,13. Insurers, ground handlers and fuel suppliers in third countries are the group most directly exposed, since they sit between the carriers and the financial system the sanctions reach^3,11.

Two things will show whether the measure works as described. The first is how many jurisdictions follow Iraq in suspending the carriers rather than waiting to be designated^5,10. The second is the banking channel: Bessent has already named sanctioned institutions and raised the prospect of a wider banking ban, which is the lever that reaches service providers with no direct US business^3,9. Until the designations are published in full, the compliance perimeter for foreign airports and fuel suppliers is defined by the threat rather than by a list^2,13.