An Iranian passenger plane travelling to Tajikistan was forced to turn back mid-flight because Turkmenistan did not grant it authorization to transit its airspace amid the threat of US sanctions, Iranian media reported on Thursday.
The plane, en route from Tehran to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, was unable to reach its destination “because Turkmenistan had not granted Iranian airlines authorization to fly over its airspace,” news agency Isna reported, citing a spokesman for Iran’s aviation authority.
The flight took place earlier this week, but the exact time of departure was initially unclear.
It comes after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced further pressure on Iran’s aviation sector in an interview on Monday, and threatened states with exclusion from the US dollar system if they supplied Iranian airlines with fuel, provided landing services or sold tickets on their behalf.
The latest US move followed sweeping US sanctions against Iran’s aviation sector two weeks ago. Washington seeks to pressure Tehran into an end to the war the US launched in late February alongside Israel.
Due to the latest punitive measures, flights from Tehran to the United Arab Emirates, Baghdad and Oman are no longer possible.
Istanbul, one of the main hubs for travel to Iran, still offers connections to Tehran, but travellers have reported uncertainty and chaos at check-in desks.
Some airlines are still operating flights to China, Iran’s most important trading partner. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun rejected the US move, describing the punitive measures as “unlawful, unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law and for which there is no mandate from the UN Security Council.”