Fact check: the US Treasury issued no new Iran sanctions directive, and only an Iraqi airline was delisted

After a claim that US sanctions on Iran had been lifted circulated widely on social media and in Persian language outlets, a check by Khabar Online on Wednesday 5 August 2026 found that the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had issued no new directive on Iran sanctions. According to the review, the new OFAC update has no connection to Iran's oil sanctions and does not amount to the United States returning to its commitments under the Islamabad understanding.

What actually happened was the removal of the Iraqi airline Fly Baghdad, and two of its Boeing 737 aircraft with the tail numbers YI-BAF and YI-BAN, from the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. The company, previously listed under the aliases Fly Baghdad Airlines and Iraq Express, had been designated under Executive Order 13224 as a specially designated global terrorist entity over alleged links to the IRGC Quds Force.

In the same update, the Treasury amended the sanctions record of Bashir Abdulkadhim Alwan al-Shabani, the airline's chief executive and part owner. He remains on the list of sanctioned individuals, but the basis of his designation changed from a link to Fly Baghdad to a direct link to the Quds Force. Khabar Online attributed the confusion to the haste of Persian language media in republishing breaking reports from outlets such as Al Jazeera and Reuters.