00:04Washington threatened to shut Iranian airlines down worldwide.
00:08But on the very day that threat took effect,
00:10an Iranian commercial jet landed in China.
00:14A Mahan Air flight took off from Tehran
00:17and arrived at Guangzhou Bayou International Airport
00:20on Wednesday, September 23,
00:22according to Flightradar24 tracking data.
00:26And the timing could hardly be more striking.
00:28The Trump administration had set September 23
00:31as the date for intensified action against Iranian airlines,
00:36with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson's warning
00:39that Iranian carriers would effectively be shut down around the world.
00:43But Iranian aircraft were still flying.
00:46The Mahan Air flight to Guangzhou
00:48was one of several Iranian commercial services
00:51reportedly operating that day.
00:54Other flights were also tracked heading toward destinations,
00:57including Bangkok, Phuket, Shanghai and Kabul.
01:02Mahan Air is Iran's largest private airline
01:05and has been under U.S. sanctions for years
01:08over alleged links to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
01:12and accusations involving weapons transportation.
01:16Now Washington is attempting to squeeze the airline sector even further.
01:20The new pressure relies heavily on secondary sanctions.
01:24That means the United States is not only targeting Iranian airlines themselves.
01:29Foreign companies providing services to those aircraft could also face consequences.
01:35Airports, fuel suppliers, ground handlers, ticketing companies,
01:39and other businesses assisting Iranian carriers could risk losing access to the U.S. financial system.
01:46In other words, Washington is trying to make the entire international support network
01:52for Iranian aviation too costly to operate.
01:55But China is refusing to simply follow Washington's lead.
01:59Beijing has repeatedly rejected unilateral U.S. sanctions against Iran,
02:04describing them as illegal and lacking a basis in international law
02:09or authorization from the United Nations.
02:12China has also maintained that its cooperation with Iran is legitimate and lawful.
02:17That makes the Tehran to Guangzhou flight particularly significant.
02:22The aircraft was reportedly not listed on Guangzhou Bayun Airport's official website,
02:28but flight tracking data showed the aircraft arriving in China.
02:31And while one flight does not establish how every Iranian airline is operating,
02:37it does show that at least some Iranian commercial connections remain active
02:41despite Washington's new sanctions threats.
02:44For Iran, maintaining international air links is increasingly important
02:49after years of restrictions on its aviation industry.
02:53For the Trump administration, the goal is to make those international links
02:57financially and operationally difficult to sustain.
03:00But China's continued engagement with Iran could complicate that strategy.
03:05The bigger question now is what Washington does next.
03:09Will the United States target foreign companies helping Iranian aircraft operate?
03:14And will Beijing face additional pressure for maintaining those connections?
03:19For now, despite Washington's threat to isolate Iran's airlines worldwide,
03:24Iranian commercial aircraft are still taking off,
03:27and at least one has landed in China.
