Washington has done well targeting Tehran’s shipping, banking and financial networks. The regime is increasingly being pushed onto costlier land routes.
But some countries are leaving one major artery relatively open to Iran: the sky. Turkey is among the worst offenders; Washington needs to rein it in.
After Iran reopened its airspace in April, commercial flights returned.
In May, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington would move to deny Iran’s main carriers’ landing rights. Yet they kept flying internationally.
So President Donald Trump went further: In September, the Treasury Department sanctioned all active Iranian airlines, dramatically widening Washington’s economic campaign against Iran’s aviation sector.
Iranian airlines give Tehran access to foreign markets and the ability to transport personnel and weapons across borders, including for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.
That’s why closing Iran’s aviation routes matters and pressuring countries to cut off flights is essential.
In much of the Middle East, that pressure is working: Iraq, Oman and the United Arab Emirates suspended Iranian flights.
Turkey, not so much.
Yes, Ankara has taken some steps. Mahan Air, a US-sanctioned Iranian carrier, was supposedly forced to suspend flights to Turkey on Sept. 21.
Turkey also revoked the operating license of Iran’s Bank Mellat branch in Istanbul, and Turkish carriers remain off routes to Iran.
But those measures are narrow — and seemingly cosmetic.
Our review of flight histories found more than 90 Iranian airline landings in Turkey after Sept. 23, which is when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent vowed Iranian airlines’ international flights would be effectively grounded.
Those aircraft are not operating in Turkey without help. Turkish companies are providing ground support that keeps sanctioned Iranian carriers operating.
They handle passengers and cargo and provide critical ramp services at Turkish airports, the kind of support that should put them in Washington’s sanctions crosshairs.
One Turkish company illustrates the problem.
FUGO Ground Services has agreements with at least eight US-sanctioned Iranian carriers operating in Turkey, per records from Turkey’s General Directorate of State Airports Authority.
FUGO provides services including passenger handling and ramp operations under existing and and new contracts: Many were signed or took effect in 2026 — one, just days ago.
Recently, that relationship was seen on the tarmac: A Sept. 28 photo 28 shows a Caspian Airlines aircraft being serviced by FUGO at Istanbul Airport.
Caspian is a US-sanctioned Iranian carrier that continued flying to Turkey after Washington’s Sept. 23 deadline.
But Turkish entities enabling Iranian sanctions was only part of the story.
Treasury’s sanctions have repeatedly identified Turkish-based businesses and financial institutions that have helped Tehran move money and maintain access to the international financial system.
Just last month, Washington sanctioned an Istanbul-based bank for facilitating the use of tens of millions of dollars for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Four days later, Treasury sanctioned three Turkey-based companies for supporting Mahan Air, one of Iran’s most notorious sanctioned carriers.
Over the years, the Turkish government has breached US sanctions and enabled Iran in numerous ways.
For instance, Halkbank, Turkey’s state-owned lender, carried out what a Justice Department official described as “one of the most serious Iran sanctions violations [Washington] had ever seen.”
From 2012 to 2016, it converted $20 billion in restricted Iranian oil proceeds into gold and cash, while disguising the transfers as food and medicine shipments.
Turkish officials were implicated, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself; witnesses testified he ordered the trade.
But Turkey was let off the hook: In June, a US federal judge dismissed an indictment of the bank without fines or even an admission of wrongdoing.
It’s not clear why, but Erdogan spent a decade lobbying three administrations to make the case disappear.
Turkey may claim it’s a strategic US ally, that it helps fight terrorism and mediate conflicts. And Trump may personally regard Erdogan favorably.
But Ankara’s longstanding pattern of enabling the regime in Tehran needs to stop.
Trump needs to recognize Turkey’s playbook is to pretend it’s cooperative by shutting down a channel or two while leaving others running.
That’s antithetical to what Trump wants.
His economic campaign has already yielded positive results. Iranian oil exports have been nonexistent while oil from Arab Gulf states is flowing again. The regime is reeling from a sense of economic defeat; it mustn’t be allowed a lifeline via Turkey.
Washington should insist Ankara halt all Iranian flights to Turkish territory; half-measures are not enough.
Treasury should also impose sanctions on any entity providing those airlines with material support, including FUGO Ground Services.
That would send a clear message to every ground-handling company willing to work with sanctioned Iranian airlines that they’ll face consequences.
Cut off the ground support, and the United States can directly constrain Iranian carriers’ ability to operate in Turkey and elsewhere.
Ahmad Sharawi is a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Sinan Ciddi is a senior fellow and director of the Turkey program.