Gulf States Ground Iran's Airlines as American Sanctions Bite
The United Arab Emirates suspended all Iranian airline flights until further notice, and Iranian state media reported shutdowns to Oman, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Baghdad, after Washington’s deadline passed for global firms to stop dealing with Iran’s carriers. Tehran’s main airport still lists flights to Afghanistan, Armenia, China, Iraq, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Turkey — but none to the Gulf. Brent jumped 3.4% to $106.61. Saudi Arabia intercepted six Houthi ballistic missiles after emergency alerts for Mecca, Jeddah and Yanbu.
This is the first concrete bite of the measures the administration has called an economic D-Day, and it lands precisely where the diplomacy is happening: the Gulf capitals hosting the mediation are the ones now turning Iranian aircraft away, a day after a senior Iranian security official threatened to make the airports of any complying country unusable. The effect on ordinary Iranians is immediate and total — a retired Tehran teacher, texting Reuters, said simply: “We are living in an open-air prison.” Meanwhile the war’s other front kept moving: the Saudi-led coalition promised any Houthi escalation would “be dealt with firmly”, with the United Nations counting more than 700 killed and about 130,000 displaced in the latest Yemen fighting. Watch whether Turkey and Iraq hold out.