Operation Economic Outcast Targets All Remaining Iranian Airlines
WASHINGTON- Today, under Operation Economic Outcast, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned 36 targets for supporting Iran’s aviation sector, which the regime uses to move weapons, personnel, and illicit cargo. Today’s action also targeted covert front companies, foreign intermediaries, and deceptive transshipment routes that Iran relies on to obtain U.S.-origin aircraft and sensitive technology. In addition to OFAC’s action, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is issuing an Alert asking financial institutions to report procurement networks supporting Iran’s aviation industry.
“Under Operation Economic Outcast, we promised severe consequences for those providing financial lifelines to the Iranian regime,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “Today, we followed through on that promise with sanctions on companies that continue to support Mahan Air. 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.”
As part of this action, OFAC is also targeting third-country firms that facilitate U.S.-sanctioned Mahan Air’s proliferation activity, terrorist-linked flight operations, and illicit procurement of U.S.-origin aircraft. Concurrently, OFAC is suspending three Iran-related aviation authorizations to put additional pressure on the Iranian regime. These include authorizations that allowed for overflights, and for non-U.S. airlines to fly U.S.-origin or U.S.-controlled commercial aircraft into Iran. OFAC will consider aviation safety-related requests on a case-by-case basis.
Any foreign firm or individual enabling sanctioned Iranian airlines-including through aircraft transfers, cargo services, or general sales agent support-will face serious consequences for supporting the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. As Secretary Bessent has stated, Operation Economic Outcast will sever the economic lifelines that sustain the Iranian regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) via a sustained and systematic campaign to close every financial resource, including the aviation sector, that supports the leading state sponsor of terror. Any person that assists Iran’s aviation sector, from the provision of general sales agent services through to support to Iran’s covert aircraft procurement schemes, will be held accountable.
OFAC is taking this action pursuant to the counterterrorism authority Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended, and E.O. 13902, which targets certain sectors of the Iranian economy. This action leverages the August 24, 2026 aviation sector determination under E.O. 13902 to sanction the remaining active Iranian airlines and intensify efforts to isolate Iran’s terrorist regime from the global financial system. It also builds on OFAC’s April and July 2026 sanctions actions targeting persons servicing Mahan Air’s domestic and international flights. On October 12, 2011, OFAC designated Mahan Air pursuant to E.O. 13224 for providing financial, material, and technological support to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), which OFAC designated pursuant to E.O. 13224 in October 2007 for providing support to multiple terrorist organizations. In December 2019, the U.S. Department of State designated Mahan Air pursuant to E.O. 13382, which targets weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferators and their supporters.
OPERATION ECONOMIC OUTCAST IS ISOLATING THE IRANIAN REGIME
Announced by Secretary Bessent on August 24, 2026, dubbed Economic D-Day, Operation Economic Outcast is severing the remaining economic lifelines that sustain the Iranian regime. Treasury has mapped the networks, facilitators, and financial channels that Iran uses to smuggle oil, evade sanctions, and fund terror. Working with partners across the U.S. government, the European Union, United Kingdom, Gulf partners, and others, Treasury is targeting any source of the regime’s illicit revenue.