The US Treasury released a statement on Wednesday, targeting the UAE-based Parthia Cargo and Delta Parts Supply FZC, Press TV reported.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin repeated the anti-Iran allegations that Mahan Air is “a tool to spread its destabilizing agenda around the world.”

“The United States will continue to take action against those supporting this airline,” he claimed.

The Treasury baselessly blamed the two companies “for their material support of Iranian airline Mahan Air.”

“Parthia Cargo and Delta Parts Supply FZC are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Mahan Air,” read the statement.

The sanctions are part of the Trump administration’s so-called maximum pressure against Iran after the US unilateral withdrawal from an internationally backed nuclear deal.

Iran’s UN Ambassador Majid Takht-Ravanchi said in identical letters to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council that Iran “expresses its strongest objections against this violation of international law and will pursue the issue through relevant international bodies.”

Takht-Ravanchi said a Mahan Airlines Airbus A310 en route from Tehran to Beirut on July 23 “was aggressively and unexpectedly intercepted” by two US F-15 fighter jets while traveling through internationally specified air corridors in Syria’s airspace, AP reported.

“In reaction to the offensive and hazardous maneuverings of the United States fighter jets and in order to save the civil aircraft and passengers’ lives, the airliner had to change altitude abruptly, causing injuries to the passengers on board,” the ambassador said.

US Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a Central Command spokesman, said at the time of the incident that a US F-15 “conducted a standard visual inspection” of the Iranian plane “at a safe distance of approximately 1,000 meters from the airliner.”

The airliner’s pilot had to swiftly lower the altitude to avoid a collision with the American warplanes. The sudden swerve resulted in injuries to some of the passengers, who hit their heads against the plane’s ceiling. The flight, nevertheless, landed safely in the Lebanese capital, and all the passengers left the aircraft.

The Iranian envoy said that in line with provisions of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization contacted Syrian authorities and called for “a prompt and accurate investigation of the incident.”

He said Iranian authorities also launched an investigation after the plane returned from Beirut.

The results of both investigations will be released “after the revision and finalization of the collected data and information” by both teams, Takht-Ravanchi said.

“It is obvious that the act by the United States fighter jets is a flagrant violation of the aviation security and freedom of civil aviation reflected in the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation and its relevant annexes as well as an infringement of the 1971 Montreal Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation,” he said.

 “It is incumbent upon the United Nations to reject such an unlawful and yet adventuristic act and hold the United States accountable for this irresponsible behavior,” Takht-Ravanchi said.

Speaking during a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday, Rouhani said the enemies of Iran are growing more and more frustrated as all their pressure tactics against the nation have failed to produce their desired results.

The enemies have thus resorted to a new scenario, “brazenly making dangerous mischief in international airspace,” he added, Press TV wrote.

“Where are the ICAO, the Security Council, the United Nations and the countries of the region? The state where the violation took place and the one that was the destination of the flight should all speak out,” he added.

Last Thursday, two US F-15 warplanes conducted a dangerous maneuvering close to Mahan Air’s Flight 1152 that had taken off from Tehran and was heading to Beirut.

The incident took place over Syria’s Al-Tanf region, where the US maintains an illegal military presence.

The US harassment led the pilot of Iranian passenger plane to swiftly lower the altitude to avoid a collision with the American jets, leaving several passengers injured.

“How is it possible for a fighter jet to fly close to a passenger jet through a free international route and on a specific aviation route and terrorize people?” asked Rouhani. “This is undoubtedly [an instance of] aerial terrorism.

“The individual who sends a fighter jet next to a passenger plane has committed an act of aerial terrorism and should be treated as a terrorist. The ICAO, the Security Council and countries must confront [that party].”

He further referred to the US downing of Iran Air Airbus A300B2 over the Persian Gulf on July 3, 1988, which killed 290 people, saying the Americans have had a history of such acts, but for them to do this in a third country is outrageous.

The president also slammed the US’s attempt to exert “maximum pressure” on the Iranian nation, saying the Americans have been “begging” the East and the West to deprive the Iranians of their rights under the 2015 nuclear deal and UNSC Resolution 2231 that entail the lifting of the UN arms embargo on Iran.

“Day and night, the White House brokers go from one country to another and make a phone call after another,” and all to no avail, he said.

Rouhani made the remarks in reference to recent visits by US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook to a range of countries, where he discussed extending a UN arms ban against Iran, which is set to expire on October 18.

“All these mischiefs and these games are because they faced defeat on any path they took against Iran,” the president said.

“We tell the White House statesmen that you have only one option left in the face of Iran, and that is observing rights, law, agreements and regulations and compensating for the damages you caused to the Iranian people. That means you have no second option,” he said.

Commenting on the act of US fighter jets in harassing an Iranian airliner over Syria on Thursday night (July 23), Seyyed Abbas Mousavi said the move was against international aviation regulations.

Two US fighters carried out dangerous maneuvering near Mahan Air’s Flight 1152 with 163 passengers and crew on board en route to Beirut. The US warplanes embarrassing move put the lives of the civilian passengers in danger and terrified them. The airliner’s pilot reportedly reduced flight altitude to avoid colliding with the warplanes which have led to several injuries among passengers.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) which oversees American troops in the Middle East, has later claimed that the two fighters were on their routine mission near the al-Tanf military base and just conducted “a standard visual inspection of a Mahan Air passenger airliner at a safe distance of approximately 1,000 meters from the airliner.”

Referring to CENTCOM’s claim as “ridiculous,” the spokesman said, the movie was the outcome of many cases of violation of laws.

“The presence of US troops in Syria is illegal, and so is the mission of its fighter jets. More importantly, no one has allowed the US to inspect civilian airliners with its fighter jets. This is illegal and dangerous and endangers the lives of civilians especially given the fact that despite claims, no safe distance was being observed,” Mehr News Agency (MNA) quoted Mousavi as saying.

Video footage of the inside of the Iranian airliner broadcast by the Iranian state TV showed a passenger lying immobile on the floor and another with a wounded nose and forehead, presenting his bloodied face mask to the camera.

Several passengers, some seen screaming and shouting, were injured in the flight maneuver over Syria.

Mosavi said that Tehran will pursue this US action through international bodies, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in particular, and will not let America undermine international laws with its bullying behavior.

He further warned against any case of “new adventurism by the US or the Israeli regime in the region,” stressing that stability of West Asia should not turn into an instrument for election campaigns of the US.

Earlier on Friday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted “The US illegally occupies the territory of another State and then harasses a scheduled civil airliner—endangering innocent civilian passengers—ostensibly to protect its occupation forces. Audacity to compound lawlessness upon lawlessness. These outlaws must be stopped before the disaster.”

Commenting on the incident, Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami said on July 24 that Tehran lodged a formal complaint with the ICAO, describing Thursday’s incident as a “terrorist act, one of aggression”.