Iran, Sept 23. (Redazione/Adnkronos/GNA) – A number of Iranian airlines were forced today to cancel international flights, on the first day of new US sanctions coming into effect.
However, not all planes remained grounded. A Mahan Air company plane, one of the two main Iranian airlines operating international connections, landed around 8:40 GMT in China.
Yesterday, Beijing had rejected US threats to impose sanctions on anyone maintaining ties with the Iranian aviation sector, calling these measures “unilateral and illegal”.
With these new sanctions, the United States intends to further increase economic pressure on Tehran.
In early September, Washington had blacklisted the entire Iranian aviation sector, with the aim of paralyzing Iranian airlines “worldwide”. The sanctions have already produced some effects.
Yesterday, Mahan Air announced the suspension of all its flights to neighboring Turkey, at the request of the Turkish authorities.
Today, a major travel agency in Tehran told AFP that flights to Baghdad (Iraq), Muscat (Oman), Qatar, Georgia, and Azerbaijan were suspended, and no tickets were being sold. “The situation is unstable and we are currently no longer selling tickets for fear of cancellations,” a travel agent told AFP.
Iran has a total of 27 airlines, but most operate exclusively domestic connections. The two main ones, the flag carrier Iran Air and the private Mahan Air, normally operate most of the international connections, mainly to neighbouring countries, but also to Russia and China.
Iran Air stated in a press release issued before the sanctions came into effect, that it had not received, for its part, any official instructions from Turkey, Azerbaijan, or Iraq prohibiting it from serving these countries bordering Iran.
GNA