US sanctions cut most Iranian flights as Revolutionary Guards general killed in southeast clashes
New US aviation sanctions have halted what the US Treasury says is 80–90% of Iran’s international flights, while a senior Revolutionary Guards commander and his intelligence officer were killed in southeastern Iran. Together, the developments deepen Iran’s isolation abroad and highlight serious security challenges at home.
Iran is facing a squeeze in the air and new losses on the ground after fresh US sanctions and deadly clashes in the country’s southeast.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, outlining new sanctions on Iran’s aviation sector, said the measures had effectively paralysed most of the country’s international air links. “More than 80% or 90% of international flights from Iran have been halted. I’m not sure how the Iranian representatives at the UN intend to get back home,” he said in remarks reported by U.S. outlets.
A separate Treasury statement, cited in related coverage, described the result as a paralysis of Iran’s aviation sector. Besant framed the curbs as part of a broader sanctions package that has sharply reduced Iran’s ability to operate flights abroad.
Iranian officials have responded with threats against countries in the Persian Gulf, warning that they could be attacked for supporting or enforcing US measures on Iranian airlines. Those threats follow what Besant described as the near‑shutdown of international flights from Iran.
At the same time, Iran’s security forces have suffered a high‑level loss in the southeast. Iranian General Hossein Zarifi, commander of the “Shahid Sajjad” operations base and a member of the Quds Force, was killed in clashes with armed groups, along with his intelligence officer, Ahmad Kharati Zariati. The clashes took place in southeastern Iran, an area that has seen repeated unrest and attacks on state forces.
The Quds Force is best known for its role outside Iran’s borders, but Zarifi’s post at an operations base in the southeast underlines how senior officers are also used to manage security in restive regions at home. Losing a commander and his intelligence officer in one engagement suggests both the intensity of the fighting and the importance Tehran attached to that front.
Sanctions that ground planes and clashes that kill generals point in different directions but share a common effect: they limit how freely Iran can move—its citizens, its officials, and its security forces. The loss of air links makes it harder for ordinary Iranians, businesspeople, and diplomats to travel. The fighting in the southeast shows that, even with its external networks, the state is still battling to assert control on its own territory.
Key signals now will be whether Iran can reroute significant numbers of flights through friendly countries despite US pressure, how Gulf states respond to the threats of retaliation, and whether more reports emerge of senior security officials killed or wounded in the southeast. Any such pattern would show whether Zarifi’s death was an isolated incident or part of a broader escalation inside Iran.
Sources
- OSINT