New Delhi: India has not allowed Iranian aircraft to fly in and collect medicines since early August, an Iranian source has stated, with the Indian government reluctant to facilitate direct flights over fears of US sanctions, having suggested Tehran take a road route.The claim follows a press conference in Tehran on October 19, where Iran Air managing director Taher Abdolhay said the airline had been unable to secure permission to transport medicines from India and Singapore.He stated Iran Air had offered to carry pharmaceuticals from Mumbai, even on a passenger flight, but a permit for a cargo flight was never issued. “Even for the Mumbai route, we said we would transport the medicine cargo on a passenger flight, but this was not agreed to,” he said. Abdolhay added that the airline had also repeatedly sought clearance for flights to Singapore to move 60 to 70 tonnes of cargo, but without success.The war began on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran and killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Tehran retaliated with missiles aimed at Israel and Gulf states hosting US forces, and declared the Strait of Hormuz closed. The closure disrupted global shipping and pushed up oil, fertiliser and commodity prices, hitting Asia especially hard.Efforts to revive a ceasefire have continued, but tensions have risen sharply this week. Reports have pointed to preparations by the US and Israel to launch fresh attacks, with Iran threatening to strike oil facilities, undersea cables and AI infrastructure across the Gulf in response.An exception for Mahan Air Before the fighting started, Iranian carriers had operated direct services to India. Mahan Air flew twice a week to New Delhi and Iran Air operated a weekly flight from Mumbai. These services were suspended after the war began and airspace closures disrupted regional aviation.In the initial months, passenger services were suspended, but India allowed special Mahan Air medicine flights to continue at a rate of roughly once every two weeks, according to the Iranian source.New Delhi did not publicly announce these clearances, but the Iranian embassy has publicised the shipments and its efforts to transport the medicines.One planned collection flight, however, did not make it to India. A Mahan Air plane due to fly from Mashhad to Delhi to collect medicines bought with donations from Indians was hit in a US strike on March 30, leaving around 40 tonnes of medicines stranded in India. By April 11, Iran’s ambassador Mohammad Fathali was announcing the dispatch of another consignment of medical supplies purchased with donations from Indians and thanking the Indian government for helping with logistics.India had also sent its own five-tonne shipment of medicines and equipment through the Iranian Red Crescent Society.Also read: Is India Losing Iran Again Because of the United States and Israel?Permissions stopBut the permissions have since dried up, the Iranian source said. “Since the beginning of August, no permission has been granted for the transportation of medicines,” the source told The Wire. A Mahan Air flight scheduled for late July or early August and meant to carry several tonnes of medicines from India to Iran has still not received permission to land, the source added.An Indian source familiar with the discussions told The Wire that the Ministry of Civil Aviation had been reluctant to permit direct cargo or passenger flights primarily because of US sanctions.They pointed to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s warning that any entity providing ground-handling support to Iranian aircraft would face penalties.At the Ministry of External Affair’s (MEA) bi-weekly media briefing on Friday, October 23, spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was questioned about reports that Iranian aircraft had been denied clearance to collect medicines.His response indicated that direct flights were not currently operating, acknowledging that the conflict had created fresh obstacles to air travel between the two countries.“We have and continue to facilitate transport of life saving medicines to Iran. As you are aware, the ongoing conflict in the region have posed new challenges to the flight connectivity between our two countries,” he said. Jaiswal added that Indian representatives remained “in communication with Iranian counterparts to facilitate transportation of life saving medicines as a humanitarian gesture.”The MEA spokesperson did not provide any more details about the “communication”.New Delhi’s counter-offer, the source said, was for Iran to charter a plane from a non-Iranian airline, fly the medicines to Armenia or Azerbaijan and truck them into Iran. Because the final leg would be by road, there would be no sanctions exposure, they argued.It was felt in New Delhi that the overland leg would not pose a comparable sanctions risk for the countries involved. Further, a couple of batches of medicines had already been transported from India to Tehran through Armenia earlier, which meant that the route was viable.US sanctionsThe Iranian side had continued to seek direct flights rather than accept the proposed alternative, according to the Indian source. The source believed Tehran wanted to demonstrate that countries were not yielding to US sanctions, but said the insistence on direct flights was delaying the delivery of medicines already purchased by Iran.Washington had targeted Mahan Air’s network well before the blanket airline sanctions against Iranian airlines. In April, the US Treasury department sanctioned Mahan Air’s parent company and board members, and identified two of its Boeing 777s as blocked property. The Treasury’s April 21 announcement said the action targeted networks involved in procuring and transporting weapons for Iran.The more concerning action came for India on July 30. The US Treasury department designated six entities and individuals in China, India, Russia and Iran, among them general sales agents for Mahan Air as enterprises “helping sustain a terrorist enterprise”. The Indian entity was Skiez Travels and Logistics Private Limited, which the US Treasury said serves as Mahan Air’s general sales agent in India.On August 24, the US government determined that Executive Order 13902’s sanctions provisions would apply to Iran’s aviation sector, paving the way for further action. On September 8, it designated 27 remaining Iranian airlines and warned that foreign businesses providing services to Iranian carriers could face serious consequences, including being cut off from the US financial system.The following month, the US treasury secretary announced that Iranian airlines would be shut out of international operations from September 23. He warned that airports, fuel suppliers, ground handlers and ticket sellers servicing them could be cut off from the US dollar system. The UAE, Oman, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkmenistan subsequently restricted or suspended Iranian airlines’ access.This story was updated at 7.25 pm on Friday, October 23, to add MEA spokesperson’s remarks at the media briefing.