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Over 20,000 DepEd’s teaching positions are still vacant – solon

Over 20,000 teaching positions of the Department of Education (DepEd) are currently unfilled, according to Davao de Oro Rep. Maricar Zamora on Tuesday.

During the House sponsorship and plenary deliberations on the proposed DepEd budget for next year, ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio asked Zamora about the current status of vacant teaching positions.

Zamora, the agency’s budget sponsor, answered queries from other lawmakers.

She said DepEd created more than 31,000 positions under the 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

She noted that of this figure, over 22,700 teaching positions were already filled.

‘Out of the 31,428 positions, 22,711 positions are filled, which leaves 8,688 unfilled positions as of June 30, 2026 data. Previous years also had a total of 12,646 unfilled positions,’ Zamora counted.

‘In total, we have around 20,000 unfilled positions, based on June 30, 2026 data,’ she added the two periods.

Tinio then asked why the DepEd has over 20,000 vacancies amid the long list of registered qualified applicants waiting to be hired.

In response, Zamora said that one of the reasons for the delay in filling plantilla positions is that there are ‘hard-to-fill positions.’

She also noted that factors such as waiving of beneficiaries under special hiring guidelines, and lack of qualified applicants for appropriate specializations.

Zamora also mentioned that there are still other unfilled positions for non-teaching personnel.

However, she did not say the exact figures for the items.

Tinio also recalled DepEd’s presentation during the House committee appropriations budget briefing, where Education Secretary Sonny Angara said there was no funding for hiring new teachers in 2027.

Angara had said funding is part of the wish list, where the agency requested an additional P49.1 billion for its ‘personnel improvement’ program, including P4.2 billion for hiring 14,274 teachers.

Tinio once again asked whether DepEd will ask for new items to sustain teacher hiring.

Zamora said the agency will continue its hiring process this year and into next year.

‘This is because the allocation, the appropriation given to the department from the GAA 2026, is still being implemented starting this year, and the hiring will continue until next year.’ she explained.

‘Therefore, there is no such thing as we stopped the hiring, but we are still hiring as we speak,’ Zamora said.

Expanded career progression program

Tinio also inquired why the proposed budget for the expanded career progression is only P12 billion, despite its target of promoting 135,000 teachers.

He observed that there are 100,000 backlogs from 2026, with a 35,000-strong new batch of applicants for next year.

‘If only the department had its way, the department would give what it’s due to everyone. But considering the limited resources, the department proposes a more realistic amount,’ Zamora told Tinio.

NIPR to hold Sokoto roadshow ahead of World PR Forum

The Sokoto State Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) has announced plans to hold a statewide roadshow to promote Nigeria’s hosting of the World Public Relations Forum (WPRF) Abuja 2026.

Tagged ‘Caliphate Roadshow,’ the event will take place on Saturday, September 26, 2026, beginning at 8am.

The chapter’s Public Relations Officer, Elizabeth Ephraim, disclosed this in a statement, saying the exercise was aimed at raising public awareness about the international forum and Nigeria’s role as host.

According to her, the roadshow will begin at Dogon Daji House in Sokoto and pass through the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) Roundabout, Government House, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and Gusau Road before ending at the A.A. Shehu Arena along NNPC Salame Road.

She said the exercise was part of a nationwide campaign initiated by the NIPR Council to sensitize Nigerians to the significance of WPRF Abuja 2026.

The statement said the campaign would create ‘greater awareness about Nigeria’s hosting of the global public relations and communication community’ and highlight the importance of the international gathering.

WPRF Abuja 2026 is scheduled to take place in Nigeria from November 15 to 21, with more than 3,000 delegates from 126 countries expected to attend.

The forum is being organized by the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, the African Public Relations Association (APRA), and the NIPR.

The NIPR chapter called on its members, mass communication students, journalists, youth groups, media practitioners, stakeholders, and members of the public to participate in the roadshow.

It said, ‘The Chapter looks forward to a strong turnout and collective participation as Sokoto joins the nationwide campaign towards a successful WPRF Abuja 2026.

Marcos open to requiring congressional franchises for social media apps

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is open to a measure requiring social media platforms to secure congressional franchises before operating in the Philippines if the proposal is deemed beneficial for the safety of the public, according to Palace press officer Claire Castro.

The idea was raised anew by Quezon Rep. David ‘Jayjay’ Suarez as authorities grapple with concerns over online content, school security, and youth violence.

Castro, during a briefing on Tuesday, said the Department of Information and Communications Technology is also pushing for a similar proposal that would give the country a greater jurisdiction and authority over social media platforms.

‘Maganda pong panukala iyan. Tingnan po natin, definitely kapag nabasa po siguro ng Pangulo kung ano ang nilalaman ng mga version na iyan, kapag nakitang maganda at nakakabuti sa ating mga kababayan, hindi naman ito maghahadlang,’ she said when asked for a comment on Suarez’s proposal.

(That is a good proposal. Let us see; once the President reads the contents of those versions and sees that they are beneficial to our fellow citizens, he certainly won’t stand in the way.)

House Bill No. 4786, which Suarez filed in September 2025, seeks to classify social media as ‘public services of significant public consequence,’ subjecting major platforms to congressional oversight similar to broadcasting stations and public utilities.

The lawmaker said social media is not just entertainment but also shapes democracy, the economy, and the safety of the children. He said the measure would make platforms more accountable for content moderation failures.

Suarez’s renewed call followed a series of shooting incidents in three different schools, resulting in deaths.

The most recent was in Banga National High School in South Cotabato, which claimed the lives of three students and injured six others.

Azerbaijani teams set for next matches at World Chess Olympiad

Azerbaijan’s men’s and women’s chess teams will play their next matches on September 23 at the 46th World Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

The men’s team will face Greece in the seventh round, while the women’s team will take on Armenia.

After six rounds, both Azerbaijani teams have 10 points. The men’s team currently sits 12th in the standings, while the women’s team is ninth.

The 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad is being held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from September 15 to 27. The opening ceremony took place on September 15, while the first round was played on September 16. The competition features separate Open and Women’s sections, with both played over 11 rounds under the Swiss-system format. Each team consists of four players plus one reserve. A rest day was scheduled for September 22 following the sixth round.

The Samarkand Olympiad has set a new participation record, with 208 teams competing in the Open section and 192 teams in the Women’s section. The combined total of 400 teams surpasses the previous record of 380 teams set at the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest.

The winners of the Open and Women’s sections will receive the Hamilton-Russell Cup and Vera Menchik Cup, respectively. The Nona Gaprindashvili Trophy will be awarded to the federation with the best combined performance in the two sections.

Small business, big region

I spent yesterday at the Likhang Filipino Exhibition Hall in Pasay, seated as a panelist at the ASEAN MSME Summit where around 400 trade officials, business leaders and entrepreneurs from across the region gathered under the theme ‘Navigating the Future Together: Building Future-ready ASEAN MSMEs.’ Summits like this can be theater. This one, I want to argue, is something more, because it sits on top of real machinery that the Department of Trade and Industry has been quietly building.

Start with what DTI under Secretary Cris Roque has actually done, not just announced. The department has taken the trade fair, long dismissed as a ribbon cutting exercise, and turned it into an industrial policy tool. There is now a dedicated expo for nearly every sector where Filipinos excel: the National Food Fair, the first ever DTI Beauty Fair, the Malikhaing Pinoy Creative Expo and more. These are not vanity events. They are matchmaking venues where a chili paste maker from Bicol meets a supermarket buyer, where an animator meets a studio.

Then there is money, the perennial complaint of every Filipino entrepreneur. Through the Small Business Corporation, DTI’s own lending arm, an MSME can now borrow up to P5 million with no collateral required and, as Secretary Roque herself told the summit, with a full year of grace on both interest and principal. New facilities like Purchase Order financing, which lets a business borrow against a confirmed order rather than against land it does not own, and Enterprise Rehabilitation Financing were introduced to make SB Corp. genuinely accessible. For a founder with a signed contract but an empty bank account, that is the difference between growing and merely surviving.

And crucially, DTI is thinking beyond our shores. The plan to build SME hubs through the Philippine Trade and Investment Centers, working closely with our embassies worldwide, means our commercial attachés become salesmen for Filipino products, not just report writers. Every attaché in Tokyo, Dubai or Los Angeles should wake up asking one question: which Filipino company can I help land a customer today? If that culture takes hold, it changes everything for a small exporter who cannot afford a foreign sales office.

Now, the honest part. None of this matters if it does not scale. Too many entrepreneurs in the provinces still do not know SB Corp. exists. Too many still find the paperwork of exporting more terrifying than the competition. Government programs in this country have a habit of being excellent in Manila and invisible in Mindanao. The test of Secretary Roque’s DTI is not the launch, it is the last mile.

Which brings me to ASEAN, and why this summit matters beyond the photo opportunities. The numbers are staggering: about 70 million MSMEs make up 97 to 99 percent of all establishments in ASEAN, employ 85 percent of the regional workforce and produce roughly 45 percent of its GDP. Southeast Asia is not an economy of conglomerates. It is an economy of sari-sari stores, food stalls, workshops and startups. Whoever designs the region’s rules for small business designs the region’s future.

For Filipino MSMEs, ASEAN integration cuts both ways, and we should say so plainly. Yes, it means 680 million potential customers, a regional digital market that the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement aims to grow from $300 billion today to $2 trillion by 2030.

But it also means Vietnamese coffee, Thai snacks and Indonesian fashion competing on our own shelves. Integration rewards the prepared. Our job is to make sure Filipino businesses are among the prepared, which is exactly why financing, mentorship and digital tools cannot be nice-to-haves. They are armor.

The summit’s concrete deliverables give me some optimism. The Philippines is launching the ASEAN Center of Excellence for MSMEs for regional business training and AMEN 2.0, a digital hub connecting entrepreneurs with mentors and investors, alongside sustainability training with the Global Reporting Initiative, a regional MSME financing report and a practical guide for selling online across borders. Notice what these have in common: they are tools, not communiqués.

Here the private sector deserves its due, and no one more than Joey Concepcion. As chair of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council for 2026, the Go Negosyo founder has insisted that ASEAN must be relevant to ordinary citizens, declaring that ‘ASEAN is not for big business alone.’ This is his second turn at the helm; during the 2017 chairmanship he created AMEN, the region’s first legacy mentorship program for MSMEs, and 20 years of Go Negosyo have made mentorship a national habit.

His Trabaho and Negosyo initiative, combining job fairs with free entrepreneurship mentoring in malls nationwide, gets the economics exactly right: MSMEs generate more than half the country’s jobs, so every business we help start is employment policy by another name.

That is the real stake here. We talk about MSMEs as if they were a sector. They are not. They are the employment engine of this country and this region. A new bakery hires four people. A new logistics startup hires 40. Multiply that across 70 million enterprises and you understand why the fastest anti-poverty program ever invented is a thriving small business.

The Philippines holds the ASEAN chair this year. We have the programs, the financing windows, the attachés abroad and a private sector champion with regional convening power. What remains is execution, and urgency. As Concepcion himself put it, ‘The goal of ASEAN will not work if we cannot reach the last micro-entrepreneur.’ Reach that last entrepreneur, and we will not just have hosted a summit. We will have started a hundred thousand businesses, and with them, a million jobs.

How to spot fake scholarship scams before losing money, personal data

Scholarship scams often target students at their most hopeful. When someone is searching for an opportunity to study abroad, reduce tuition costs or secure funding for school, an attractive scholarship offer can be difficult to ignore.

Scammers understand this. They create fake scholarship websites, emails and social media pages that can look surprisingly convincing. Some copy the logos, colours and names of genuine organisations, while others create official-sounding programmes and use large follower or member counts to appear legitimate.

For students, the danger goes beyond losing money. A fake scholarship application can also expose sensitive information such as passport details, national identification numbers, bank information and other personal documents.

Knowing what to check before applying can help you identify a scam early.

Real scholarships never charge a fee to apply

TOne of the clearest warning signs is a demand for payment before your application is considered.

A scholarship asking applicants to pay a ‘processing fee’, ‘registration fee’, ‘verification charge’, ‘application deposit’ or ‘redemption fee’ should immediately raise questions.

According to Metropolitan State University of Denver, legitimate scholarship opportunities generally do not require students to pay money simply to apply.

Scammers may deliberately request a small amount because it appears harmless. A demand for $10 or $20 can seem easier to justify than a request for hundreds of dollars.

But the amount is not the main issue. The question is why you are being asked to pay at all.

Be particularly cautious if someone tells you that a payment is required to ‘unlock’ a scholarship you have supposedly already won.

Check the email address, not just the logo

A scam email can copy a real logo perfectly. What is harder to fake is the sender’s actual email domain.

A message claiming to be from a university or government scholarship board should come from an official .edu or .gov address, not a generic @gmail.com or @yahoo.com account.

If the domain looks slightly off, or does not match the organisation’s real website, that is a warning sign.

A quick way to check is to search the university or programme name directly, then compare the domain in the email against the one on the official website.

Legitimate institutions rarely use free email services to send official scholarship decisions. A message from ‘@gmail.com’ claiming to represent Harvard or a national scholarship board is a strong signal something is wrong.

Be suspicious of guaranteed scholarships

Genuine scholarship programmes normally have a selection process.

Applicants may be asked to provide academic records, recommendation letters, personal statements, proof of eligibility or other supporting documents. Depending on the programme, there may also be interviews or other assessments.

A message promising that you have been ‘guaranteed’ a scholarship without going through any meaningful selection process should therefore be treated with caution.

A scholarship that says you have been selected before you even remember applying is another major warning sign.

The same applies to offers that promise admission or funding simply because you paid a fee or submitted basic personal information.

Watch for pressure to act fast

Scammers rely on urgency. A message saying an award will be lost within 24 hours, or pushing a decision before there is time to verify anything, is designed to stop a person from thinking clearly. Real scholarship boards give applicants reasonable time to respond.

If a message ever feels rushed on purpose, that feeling itself is worth paying attention to.

Slowing down costs nothing. A single extra day spent verifying a scholarship rarely causes a missed opportunity, but rushing into a scam can cost far more than time.

Search for the scholarship independently

A quick search can save a lot of trouble. Searching for a scholarship’s name alongside words like ‘scam’ or ‘fake’ often turns up warnings from other students.

Checking the organisation’s own official website, rather than a link sent in an email, is also a simple way to confirm it is real.

There is no single government website that lists every verified scholarship in the world. The safest approach is to go directly to each programme’s own official page.

Chevening, Fulbright, DAAD, and similar programmes all publish their own application details on their own official domains, and that is the only version worth trusting.

Third-party scholarship listing sites can still be useful for discovering opportunities. Just always confirm the actual application details on the programme’s own official site before entering any personal information.

Be careful with passport and identification documents

Your personal information can be valuable to scammers.

Some fake scholarship portals ask applicants to upload passports, national identity documents, bank details or other sensitive information before any genuine selection process has taken place.

That should prompt you to stop and investigate.

A passport scan contains information that can potentially be misused for identity fraud or other scams. The same applies to other official identification documents.

Do not upload sensitive documents simply because a website looks professional. First confirm who operates the website, whether the scholarship exists and whether the document is genuinely required at that stage of the application.

Be wary of unusual payment methods

A scholarship organisation asking applicants to send money through a wire transfer, cryptocurrency, gift card or another difficult-to-recover payment method should be treated with extreme caution.

Wire transfers can be particularly difficult to reverse once the money has been collected or moved through additional accounts.

If you have already sent money to a suspected scammer, contact your bank or payment provider as quickly as possible. Speed can matter when attempting to stop or recover a fraudulent transaction.

You should also report the incident to the relevant authorities or platform involved.

FAQs

How do cybercriminals misuse the passport data uploaded to a fake scholarship portal?

Stolen passport or ID data can be resold on illegal markets, used to open fraudulent financial accounts, or used to build a false identity for future scams. This is why sensitive identification documents should only ever be uploaded through a verified, official application system.

Can a student recover money sent to a fraudulent international scholarship agency via wire transfer?

Sometimes, but only if action is taken quickly. Contacting the bank within 24 to 72 hours gives the best chance of a recall or freeze before the scammer withdraws the funds. Once the money has already moved to another account, especially one abroad, recovery becomes very unlikely.

What official government websites list fully verified and accredited foreign academic scholarships?

There is no single comprehensive government website covering every scholarship worldwide. The safer approach is to check each specific programme’s own official page directly, such as Chevening’s official site, DAAD’s official site, or the Fulbright programme through the US State Department’s own exchange programme pages.

PH, Australia advance $45M grant to project-selection stage

The Philippine and Australian governments have started identifying projects, including those in renewable energy and the digital economy, to fund with a A$45-million grant designed to boost the country’s economic growth over the next five years.

In a press briefing, Australian Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Matt Thistlethwaite said the project priorities include renewable energy development, establishing a carbon market, and developing the offshore wind industry.

Other areas under consideration include reducing red tape, empowering women, small businesses, and people with disabilities, and developing the country’s digital economy.

‘This project is very much about providing support for the Philippines government to deliver on their priorities,’ Thistlethwaite said.

‘We’re very much in the scoping phase and working with the various Philippine government departments to identify where the priorities are and ensuring that the projects stack up and they make solid economic sense,’ he added.

The grant, which the Department of Finance (DOF) first secured in March, is under Australia’s Promoting Growth, Resilience, Economic Stability and Sustainability in the Philippines (Progress) program.

The Philippine government does not have to repay the A$45 million, which amounts to about P2 billion. Aside from the DOF, partner agencies include the Anti-Red Tape Authority, the Department of Energy, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department of Economy, Planning and Development.

The anticipated progress will also support job creation in the country. However, Thistlethwaite said the Australian government has yet to finalize a target for the number of jobs the program could generate.

He also assured that the team has not allocated any funds to specific projects, and they will start disbursing funds once they secure the necessary approvals.

‘So over time, as these projects are approved, we will make announcements in conjunction with the Philippines government regarding those projects and what they are, what they mean for communities in the Philippines,’ he said.

Moreover, the latest development comes four months after Australia joined the Luzon Economic Corridor (LEC), pledging financing and technical support for projects along the corridor.

Finance Secretary Frederick Go said Progress will help advance LEC projects from pipeline to execution.

‘Growth must translate into opportunity. Progress can help by improving the investment environment and strengthening the government’s capacity to deliver reforms,’ Go said in his speech.

Torres, Veguillas, Arrogante break through with bronze in team kata

Rebecca Cyril Torres, Samantha Veguillas and Ysabelle Arrogante delivered a historic milestone at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games after they clinched a bronze medal in women’s team kata on Tuesday at the Aichi-Nagoya 20th Asian Games at the Toyohashi Gymnasium.

They beat Southeast Asian rival Thailand’s Ramitar Terananon, Monsicha Sakulrattanatara and Phatcharin Plangplai, 4-1, for the Philippines’s first-ever medal in team kata event in the Asian Games.

On Sunday, Princess Catindig, Noelle Mañalac and Christy Sanosa bagged bronze in soft tennis not only capturing the Philippines’s first medal in these games but also securing the sport’s first medal in the quadrennial multi-sport competition.

The Filipina karatekas set the tone early with a flawless 5-0 sweep of Cambodia’s Sreynuch Puthea, Oun Sreyda and That Chhenghorng, but went down to a 0-5 loss to powerhouse Iran in the semifinals.

‘We dared not think which team we were up against,’ Arrogante said. ‘What was important was we got the medal.’

The emotional triumph was the culmination of years of quiet sacrifice.

‘It has been a long journey. The team has been through so much,’ an emotional Torres said. ‘We suffered losses after losses over the years, but we kept on performing, fighting to the end.’

Adding fuel to their fire was the news they received just a day prior that the Philippines officially qualified for the Karate World Cup this November in Hangzhou.

‘We were inspired by that development and that rubbed off here [team kata],’ Arrogante said.

Head Coach Sonny Montalvo commended his athletes for their immense dedication, highlighting how the girls temporarily left their families and put their university studies on hold just to train.

The trio also credited their success to the unwavering support of their coaches and officials, specifically former Karate Pilipinas president the late Pocholo Veguillas, father of current president Richard Lim, also Team Philippines chef de mission in these games.

Karate has contributed consecutive bronze medals in the Asian Games starting with Junna Tsukii in Jakarta 2018 and Sakura Alforte in Hangzhou 2023.

Alforte, an individual kata specialist, missed this year’s Asiad due to a new ruling requiring all squad members to compete in the team event.

How National Artist Patis Tesoro inspired Fil-Am visual artist Loisse Ledres

When fashion icon Maria Beatriz ‘Patis’ Tesoro was recently proclaimed National Artist for Design, Filipino-American visual artist Loisse Ledres was instantly elated by the news.

The Grand Dame of Philippine Fashion, after all, was Ledres’ No.1 influence in her multifaceted approach towards the arts. But most of all, the Cebu City-born multimedia creative was drawn to Tesoro uncompromising stance to being limitless across all her platforms.

‘She (Tesoro) is not limited by just one medium. She’s a very strong cultural figure,’ the 28-year-old New York City resident said.

Tesoro is a key figure in fashion design, particularly of Filipiniana couture as could be seen in her intricate embroideries and the unique textiles she uses for her creations.

Both Ledres and Tesoro enjoy quirky designs and vibrant colors and details on their artwork. Think bright pinks interspersed with tangerines and splashes of greens and blues, forming abstract figures or women faces and whathaveyous.

Ledres said she made it a point to stay true to herself but at the same time show interconnectedness and warmth in her works, where each tells their own story. As much as she can, she tries to push Filipino women forward in the creative process, knowing that it is a generally male-dominated industry.

‘I believe there is more room for Filipinas in these fields. Apart from it being a costly process, it is very limiting to women because then some of them would have to stop their career to be able to pursue their art. I myself have to assert myself and strive for respect,’ she said, referring to when she enrolled at the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan.

But she kept to her art. Some of Ledres’ artworks landed on the Hollywood teen series ‘High School Musical: The series,’ including her famous creation, ‘Keep Growing,’ which depicts a woman with long, flowing hair with her teardrops helping grow a plant. She could still remember that time because the occasion marked a tumultuous moment in her life.

‘I remember getting the call post-heartbreak. The piece was called ‘Keep Growing,’ It helped heal me,’ she said.

In 2024, she created a music poster for Chapelle Roan, whose aesthetics, she said also reflected her own.

Ledres also expressed admiration for Filipino tennis sensation Alex Eala who is ‘setting the bar high for Filipinos abroad.’

From an early age, Ledres knew that she wanted to be an artist. Coming from a family of teachers did not at all dampen her aspirations to become a visual artist, but complimented her desire to connect with others through art.

‘I’ve always had a hard time defining myself as an artist because I’ve always teetered between graphic design, commercial illustration and fine art. I hope in this learning process, I find deeper roots and understanding of who I am as an artist = separate from its ability to be marketable or not,’ the free-spirited former advertising arts major said in an earlier Instagram post while on hiatus.

But if there is one thing that she wanted to emulate from Tesoro, it is that she also wants to give back to her community as much as she leans on them. After holding art exhibits in New York City and Las Vegas, Nevada, already she is hoping to set up workshops and an exhibit in the Philippines, where proceeds would go fund her outreach programs.

US threatens to shut down Iranian airlines by tomorrow

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that Iranian airlines could be effectively shut out of international operations from Wednesday as the Trump administration intensifies economic pressure on Tehran.

‘On September 23rd, all the Iranian airlines, all the Iranian airlines will be shut down around the world,’ Bessent said in an interview with CNBC.

He said Washington would seek to enforce the measure by targeting foreign companies and airports that provide essential services to Iranian carriers.

‘And how do we do that? That if they land, you cannot provide them with fuel, you cannot provide them with landing services, you cannot sell them tickets, or you will be knocked out of the dollar system,’ Bessent said.

The warning applies to airports, fuel suppliers, ground-service providers and ticketing companies that continue servicing Iranian airlines. Companies that violate the restrictions could face secondary sanctions and lose access to the US dollar financial system.

Bessent said Washington was also targeting financial institutions that allegedly facilitate Iran’s access to the international financial system.

‘So we have had now three banks that we have sanctioned. The second largest bank in Egypt, the Dubai branch, funneled more than $1.8 billion into the regime. They will be closed down,’ he said.

‘About the 30th largest Turkish bank, same thing, they will be closed down.’

The latest warning follows a September 8 decision by the US Treasury Department to sanction 36 targets linked to Iran’s aviation sector, including 27 Iranian airlines and foreign entities accused of supporting the sector. Treasury said the measures were intended to cut off networks used by Iran to obtain aircraft, technology and other aviation-related services.

Iranian airlines have faced US sanctions for years, limiting their access to aircraft, spare parts and international aviation services. The latest measures seek to extend the pressure to foreign companies that enable the carriers to operate outside Iran.