Prohibition Against Certain Flights in the Tehran Flight Information Region (FIR) (OIIX)

This action prohibits certain flight operations in the Tehran Flight Information Region (FIR) (OIIX) by all: U.S. air carriers; U.S. commercial operators; persons exercising the privileges of an airman certificate issued by the FAA, except when such persons are operating U.S.-registered aircraft for a foreign air carrier; and operators of U.S.-registered civil aircraft, except when the operator of such aircraft is a foreign air carrier. The FAA finds this action to be necessary to address hazards to persons and aircraft engaged in such flight operations due to heightened military activities and increased political tensions in the Middle East, which present an inadvertent risk to U.S. civil aviation operations due to the potential for miscalculation or misidentification. This action incorporates the flight prohibition contained in Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) KICZ A0002/20 into the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). This action also sets forth the approval process and exemption information for this Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR), consistent with other recently published flight prohibition SFARs.