Daijiworld Media Network - Dubai
Dubai, Sep 24: Flights from Iran to several Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates, appeared to have been cancelled on Thursday after a US deadline expired for companies worldwide to stop working with Iranian airlines, marking a major escalation in Washington's campaign of economic pressure against Tehran.
Iran's ISNA news agency reported that all flights to the UAE, the Gulf's biggest travel hub, had been halted from midnight. No arrivals or departures to Iran were visible on the websites of Dubai or Abu Dhabi airports on Thursday, while the websites of Iranian airlines Qeshm and Varesh showed their UAE flights as cancelled.
The UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority and Dubai Civil Aviation Authority did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The US Treasury had set September 23 as the deadline for companies worldwide to comply with an order to stop doing business with Iranian airlines. Washington has said the measure is aimed at grounding Iran's entire global civilian aircraft fleet.
US President Donald Trump has described the new strategy as “economic D-Day”, drawing a comparison with the Allied assault on Nazi-controlled France during World War II. The policy expands the reach of US financial sanctions by targeting companies in third countries that continue to do business with Iranian entities, a practice known as secondary sanctions.
Iran had threatened on Wednesday to retaliate against neighbouring countries that comply with the US flight ban, warning that their airports could be made “unusable”.
The website of Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport showed flights to and from Afghanistan, Armenia, China, Iraq, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Turkey still scheduled for Thursday, but no flights to nearby Gulf states. ISNA also reported that an Iranian flight bound for Tajikistan was forced to turn back after Turkmenistan closed its airspace.
A sustained flight ban could further isolate Iran and deepen an economic crisis already aggravated by US restrictions on its maritime trade, according to the report.
The wider conflict has also continued to affect other parts of the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia, authorities said they intercepted six ballistic missiles fired by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement on Thursday.
The latest attacks came after the conflict between Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and the Houthis intensified this month. Emergency alerts were issued for areas including Mecca, Jeddah and Yanbu, the major Saudi Red Sea oil port.
“Any escalation and violations by the terrorist Houthi militia will be dealt with firmly,” a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen said in a statement.
Sources in Yemen's internationally recognised, Saudi-backed government said their forces had repelled overnight Houthi attacks on a key supply route to Aden, the Indian Ocean port city where the government is based.
The Houthis, who already control northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, have expanded their control along the Red Sea coast and have been pushing into highland areas near the central mountain city of Taiz and the road linking Taiz with Aden.
The group has continued to put pressure on government forces defending the steep Hejat al-Abd mountain pass, an important supply route for pro-government forces and goods entering Taiz.
Control of sections of the Taiz-Aden road could allow the Houthis to tighten their hold around Taiz and further weaken the government, which has struggled to regain the initiative after losing control of the western coast.
According to the United Nations, more than 700 people have been killed and thousands wounded in the latest fighting. Nearly 130,000 Yemenis have been displaced within the country, while more than 3,000 have crossed the Red Sea by boat to Africa.
The wider war, launched by Trump alongside Israel in February as “Operation Epic Fury”, has disrupted global energy supplies, killed thousands and contributed to higher oil prices.