Why is Iran threatening regional airports, and what could be the impact?

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Iran has threatened neighbouring countries with retaliation if they enforce new United States sanctions designed to stop Iranian airlines from operating internationally, raising the prospect of further disruption to air travel across a region already affected by nearly seven months of the US-Israel war on Iran.

“I urge all our neighbouring countries not to get involved in the United States adventure. This adventure will very soon end in failure,” Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told Iranian state media.

The warning came as Iranian carriers cancelled a number of international flights after the US threatened airports and aviation service providers with secondary sanctions if they continued doing business with it. On Thursday, all Iranian flights to and from the United Arab Emirates were cancelled, the Iranian Students’ News Agency reported.

Azerbaijan and Georgia had on Wednesday confirmed suspending Iranian flights, while flights to Baghdad and Muscat have also been halted. Meanwhile, several connections to Turkiye and China have continued, but many flights to these countries have been cancelled, too.

Rezaei warned on Wednesday that Tehran would retaliate against neighbouring countries that cooperate with the US restrictions.

“If a country cooperates with or embarks on adventures with the United States, its airports will no longer be able to operate flights” to Iran, Rezaei told Iranian state television. Rezaei said Iran would ensure airports in countries stopping Iranian flights “cannot function”.

The warning is part of a broader Iranian attempt to deter countries from participating in Washington’s campaign of economic pressure, which has heightened since the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28.

The immediate trigger to this threat from Rezaei is Washington’s attempt to isolate Iran’s aviation industry.

The US Department of the Treasury earlier this month announced sanctions against Iran’s remaining airlines as well as foreign companies and intermediaries accused of helping them operate.

The measures expanded longstanding restrictions on Mahan Air to cover 27 Iranian airlines and also suspended authorisations that had allowed a number of aviation links with Iran. The US accuses Mahan Air of having links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent then warned that airports and companies servicing Iranian aircraft risk being cut off from the US financial system.

He said they could not provide Iranian carriers with fuel or landing services, or sell them tickets, without risking US penalties.

“Rezaei’s warning is essentially an attempt at coercive deterrence directed at Iran’s neighbours,” Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow at the US-based Center for International Policy, told Al Jazeera. “Tehran is signalling that it will not regard compliance with US aviation sanctions as a neutral commercial decision, but as participation in Washington’s pressure campaign against Iran.”

“It also shows how the US-Iran confrontation is increasingly pulling third countries into the conflict,” she said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/24/why-is-iran-threatening-regional-airports-and-what-could-be-the-impact