On Tuesday, the United States expanded the scope of its sanctions on the Iranian aviation sector to include “all remaining Iranian airlines” that were not subject to US measures, in conjunction with targeting 36 entities that the Treasury Department said support the sector and help Tehran transport weapons, individuals, and illicit shipments.
The US Treasury Department said that the new measures come as part of increasing economic pressure on Iran, and include suspending exemptions and licenses that allowed activities related to Iranian civil aviation, including flying over Iranian airspace, aircraft safety services, refueling, and making emergency repairs.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the suspension, indefinitely, of exceptions contained in Iranian transactions and sanctions regulations, in addition to a license that allowed, under specific conditions, the re-export of some American-origin civilian aircraft to Iran during their temporary stay there.
The suspension included an exception allowing payments related to aircraft flying over Iranian airspace, another related to aircraft safety, and a third allowing refueling and emergency repairs.
The suspension also included the license that allowed the re-export of some civil aircraft to Iran in cases of temporary residence and related transactions.
OFAC simultaneously issued a new general license that allows only transactions necessary to terminate activities that were licensed under these exceptions and licenses until September 23, according to specific conditions.
Thus, transactions that were permitted under those licenses and exceptions are no longer authorized after the expiration of the liquidation period, unless they are covered by another existing general license.
36 targets and airlines
The Treasury Department announced sanctions on 36 targets that it said provided support to the Iranian aviation sector. She added that the measures target networks that help the sector obtain goods, services and technologies or facilitate its transactions.
The ministry said that the Iranian aviation sector is used by the authorities to “transport weapons, individuals, and illicit shipments,” while the new measures expanded the scope of the sanctions to include all Iranian airline companies that were still outside the American lists.
Treasury also issued an alert to financial institutions, calling on them to monitor procurement networks that support Iran's aviation sector and report on activities and transactions associated with them.
Close previous exceptions
The move follows actions taken by OFAC on August 24, when it indefinitely suspended five licenses and other exceptions that allowed a range of transactions with Iran.
These measures included educational activities conducted by Americans in third countries, some non-commercial personal transfers to and from Iran, services related to conferences, some sports activities and exchanges, in addition to academic programs and educational services.
The office had then granted a period to finalize previous transactions until September 8. With the suspension of aviation licenses on Tuesday, a new period was granted to liquidate the activities included in this round, until September 23.
The new procedures close some of the exceptions that allowed the provision of basic operational services to Iranian civil aviation, including services related to safety, fuel, maintenance, and flight, in parallel with expanding the sanctions to include the rest of Iranian airlines and their associated support networks.
The measures come about two weeks after Washington launched the “Economic Pariah” campaign against Tehran, while the US Treasury Department announced that it would impose a new package of sanctions on Iran weekly as part of its efforts to tighten economic pressure.
Tehran is preparing to place directional signs at locations that will be used as public shelters, including a number of metro stations, after criticism raised by the lack of clear shelters and means of access to them during the last two rounds of war.
The head of the Tehran City Council, Mehdi Shamran, said that the authorities will install signs at sites designated as shelters, so that residents know in advance where to go in emergency situations, instead of searching for them after the bombing begins or a crisis occurs, according to government media reports.
Shamran added that work is underway to prepare metro stations for use as shelters, but he acknowledged that the preparations are not yet complete. He explained that the authorities are relying at the current stage on the available facilities, and have begun placing signs at the chosen locations.
Previous rounds of bombing prompted Iranian officials to call on residents of the capital to take shelter in metro stations. On the other hand, citizens criticized the absence of a clear network of shelters and signs specifying their locations or ways to reach them.
Tehran includes about 160 metro stations, and some of the stations are located at a depth of more than 40 meters below the surface of the street, but the expansion of the city makes quickly reaching them difficult for some residents.
Building new shelters
This week, the city council approved a plan requiring the Tehran municipality to establish and operate shelters and safe spaces, and to introduce civil defense requirements into urban buildings and projects.
The ILNA labor agency quoted the Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning Affairs, Nasrollah Abadian, as saying that the authorities are preparing instructions to build seven public shelters, six of which are at the neighborhood level and one at the city level, with the plan to expand later to create a shelter in every district of Tehran.
Abadian said that the projects will enter the implementation phase after completing the instructions and obtaining the required approvals.
The program also includes introducing “safe rooms” in residential buildings. Abadian said that the implementation of the requirements will begin after the approval of the executive controls by the Housing Research Center, the Ministry of Roads and Housing, and the Engineering System Organization, provided that the municipality monitors compliance with them when issuing building permits and completion certificates.
Shamran explained that the “safe room” must be designed so that it remains intact if the building collapses, while the head of the Amran Committee in the City Council, Sayed Muhammad Akamiri, said that the safe spaces aim to protect against fragments in cases of indirect strikes, and must meet requirements, including ventilation.
The authorities also approved a “strategic planning document for Tehran’s subsurface spaces,” which divides uses into levels that include services, transportation, infrastructure, and crisis management, and allocates the deeper layers for purposes including civil defense and the construction of shelters.
The bond obligated the municipality to prepare an executive program within six months of being notified, which includes prioritizing areas suitable for underground development. The municipality, according to its assistant for urban planning, has allocated about 30 projects to start development projects under the roof of the capital.
Secret shelter locations
Shamran refused to publish the full details of the shelters in a public database, saying that sensitive information should remain with the responsible authorities, and not be placed in a system that can be accessed from inside or outside Iran, according to ISNA.
He called for ensuring the confidentiality of data with contractors and implementing agencies, while the authorities will use signs to inform residents of the locations that can be resorted to in the event of an emergency.
Shamran ruled out the construction of shelters under public parks, saying that excavation work might damage tree roots, and demanded prohibiting the construction of shelters and parking lots under parks.
Officials in the US military and intelligence services are considering reducing the number of soldiers and facilities deployed in the Middle East if the conflict with Iran ends, in a possible shift that re-raises the issue of the size of the US presence in the region more than two decades after the September 11 attacks.
CNN quoted six sources as saying that the discussions are still informal, but they include a vision for reducing forces and facilities, while maintaining some major bases and strategic sites.
These discussions come in the absence of a clear strategy for the post-war period, and after repeated American attempts over the past two decades to reduce involvement in the Middle East before successive crises brought Washington back to the region.
About 50,000 American soldiers are still deployed in the Middle East, along with two aircraft carriers and more than a dozen destroyers equipped with guided missiles.
The sources said that the fighting with Iran revealed the vulnerability of a number of American facilities to missiles and drones, after bases were attacked during the war.
The army is also looking to strengthen the protection of the sites that will remain, including moving some facilities underground. The idea had been on the table for years, but it gained greater urgency after American bases were subjected to repeated attacks.
The army has prepared several options to modify the structure of its deployment in the region starting next year, but officials do not believe that abandoning strategic sites to launch aircraft is practical as long as the conflict continues, according to CNN.
The military establishment and the CIA are also examining the possibility of carrying out some sensitive missions without permanent bases, by keeping personnel and equipment in the United States, sending them to the region to carry out specific missions, and then returning them.
An official review of the status of troop deployment has not yet begun, nor have direct orders to reduce them been issued. Any broad reduction is linked to the end of the war with Iran, with the expectation that a number of major bases in the region will be maintained.
The report indicated that any broad reduction would depend on the end of the war with Iran, while a clear path towards a settlement that ends the conflict has not yet emerged.
