Europe canceling direct flights with Iran, joins US sanctions over weapons deliveries to Russia

The United Kingdom, France and Germany are working to restrict direct flights between Europe and Iran in response to Tehran’s delivery of ballistic missiles to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine.

The sanctions are being levied in coordination with actions by the U.S., with the Biden administration blacklisting a number of Iranian military officials, Iranian and Russian companies. 

“The governments of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom strongly condemn Iran’s export and Russia’s procurement of Iranian ballistic missiles,” the foreign ministers of the three countries said in a joint statement on Tuesday. 

The sanctions announcement followed Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying on Tuesday that Russia has received shipments of Iranian-made ballistic missiles, the Fath-360 and that has a maximum range of 75 miles, and that it would use in its war against Ukraine. 

“Russia has now received shipments of these ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine against Ukrainians,” Blinken said during a press conference in London alongside British Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

Blinken said the coordinated sanctions by the U.S. and its partners are meant to send a signal to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, elected in June, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi that support for Russia’s war in Ukraine would draw consequences. 

“Iran’s new president and foreign minister have repeatedly said that they want to restore engagement with Europe, they want to receive sanctions relief.  Destabilizing actions like these will achieve exactly the opposite,” Blinken said. 

The U.K., France and Germany, known as the E3, said they had telegraphed publicly and privately to Tehran the consequences if the missile deliveries took place. Along with canceling bilateral air services agreements with Iran, the E3 said they are working to impose sanctions on Iran Air, the country’s national air carrier. 

The U.S. has had sanctions on Iran Air since 2011, saying the country’s national air carrier is used to transport military related equipment on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics. 

Sanctions on the airline were delisted under the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA, whose signatories included the U.K., France and Germany.

Former President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the JCPOA in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on approximately 700 individuals and entities, including Iran Air.