US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on September 2, 2026, that airlines could become targets of Washington’s economic campaign against Iran, a day after he named aircraft leasing companies as a sector under review.
Bessent made the remark in an interview on the Fox News program “Fox & Friends,” listing airlines alongside the maritime industry and digital assets.
Speaking a day before at a public discussion on the sidelines of the Group of 20 finance ministers (G20) meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, Bessent said potential targets could include airline leasing companies and anyone doing business with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
He said the Treasury was likely to announce sanctions against a bank during that week. No carrier or lessor has been identified.
Authority has been in place since August
The legal machinery is already in the books. On August 24, 2026, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued five sectoral determinations under Executive Order 13902 as part of Operation Economic Outcast, covering Iran’s digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping sectors.
The determinations allow OFAC to sanction any person, regardless of location, that operates in those sectors. In the release announcing the campaign, Treasury said Iran uses commercial airlines, many of which it described as controlled by the regime and the IRGC, to move fighters, weapons, sensitive technology, gold and cash to its proxies.
The aviation determination extends that exposure to foreign brokers, parts suppliers, maintenance providers, insurers and sales agents outside Iran.