Tehran (AFP) – Iranian airlines were forced to cancel some international flights on Wednesday after the United States tightened sanctions on Iran’s aviation industry in a new effort to cripple its economy.
Georgia and Azerbaijan have officially confirmed suspending flights, and a travel agent in Tehran told AFP that flights to Baghdad, Muscat and Qatar were also halted, though routes to other destinations remained available, including China.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the new measures on Monday as part of an earlier threat to impose “economic D-Day” on Iran, an attempt to force it into submission following nearly seven months of war.
“We are squeezing the Iranians like they’ve never seen,” Bessent told Fox News on Wednesday, adding “probably more than 80 or 90 percent” of external flights from Iran “got shut down.”
“I’m not sure how the Iranian representatives at the UN are going to get home,” Bessent said.
The Iranian delegation attending the United Nations General Assembly currently underway in New York includes Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian, who struck a defiant tone.
“The resistance of the Iranian people will only intensify in the face of sanctions, mounting pressure and growing intimidation” from the United States, Pezeshkian said.
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“We are squeezing the Iranians like they’ve never seen,” Bessent told Fox News on Wednesday, adding “probably more than 80 or 90 percent” of external flights from Iran “got shut down.”
“I’m not sure how the Iranian representatives at the UN are going to get home,” Bessent said.
I can absolutely imagine Bessent saying this and being proud of it. Boasting about the consequences of a completely pointless, unnecessary war.
