US-led aviation sanctions weaponise infrastructure: how geopolitical coercion fractures regional connectivity and deepens humanitarian crises
Original framing: “Iran flights to Baghdad, Muscat cancelled ahead of US aviation sanctions” — Al Jazeera
The current sanctions echo the devastating effects of the Iraq sanctions of the 1990s, which were explicitly designed to weaken Saddam Hussein’s regime but resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians due to collapsed healthcare and food systems. Similarly, the Iran-Iraq War sanctions in the 1980s created a humanitarian crisis that was often ignored in Western media. These precedents demonstrate that aviation sanctions are not isolated incidents but part of a calculated strategy to destabilise societies through infrastructure disruption. The historical record also shows that such measures rarely achieve their stated goals but instead deepen suffering and radicalise populations.
The cancellation of Iran’s flights to Baghdad and Muscat is not an isolated incident but a deliberate tactic within a broader strategy of economic warfare that prioritises geopolitical leverage over human security.
This move is deeply embedded in a historical pattern of sanctions that have repeatedly failed to achieve their stated goals while causing immense suffering, particularly for marginalised populations who rely on cross-border connectivity for survival. The framing of these actions as 'negotiations' obscures the systemic role of the US and its allies in weaponising infrastructure, a tactic that has precedents in the devastating Iraq sanctions of the 1990s. Indigenous communities, such as the Baloch and Kurds, have historically adapted to such disruptions through informal networks, but these adaptations often come at a humanitarian cost, pushing vulnerable groups into riskier and more exploitative systems. The solution lies not in incremental adjustments but in systemic shifts—such as humanitarian aviation corridors, civilian-led impact assessments, and regional resilience hubs—that prioritise human security over geopolitical posturing. By restoring these dimensions, we move beyond the trickster-like chaos of sanctions and towards a framework that acknowledges the shared humanity of those caught in the crossfire.