Mahan Air Lands in Guangzhou Despite Bessent Sanctions Threat — SkimNews
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- Mahan Air flight IRM093 from Tehran landed in Guangzhou at 4:39pm local time on Sept 23, tracked by FlightRadar24, even as US Treasury Secretary Bessent's deadline to ground Iranian carriers took effect.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Sept 21 that "all the Iranian airlines will be shut down around the world" beginning Sept 23 and that any country providing fuel, landing services, or ticket sales to Iranian planes would be "knocked out of the dollar system."
- Iranian airlines cancelled flights to Baghdad, Muscat, Qatar, Georgia, and Azerbaijan on Sept 23, but routes to multiple other destinations — including China — remained available, per a Tehran travel agent.
- Mahan Air's Shanghai office told AFP on the morning of Sept 23 that staff had received no cancellation notice and were selling tickets for the upcoming week as normal.
- The FlightRadar24-tracked landing was not listed on Guangzhou Baiyun airport's official website, and the US Treasury did not respond to AFP's request for clarification on the threat.
- Iranian airlines operate regular direct routes to several Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, according to AFP, underscoring how routine Tehran-to-China service has become.
- Bessent's threat came as the US-Israeli war nears the seven-month mark, per AFP, framing the airline crackdown inside broader Iran sanctions pressure.
Why it matters: Bessent set a Sept 23 deadline to "shut down" every Iranian airline worldwide, yet Iran's flagship carrier kept selling tickets and its planes kept landing in one of America's largest geopolitical rivals — exposing that US secondary-sanctions threats depend on voluntary compliance by third-country service providers, with China signaling it won't play along. The US Treasury refused to clarify how the threat would be enforced, leaving airlines and airports in limbo while routes to Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Georgia, and Azerbaijan were suspended in deference.
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