by secretly flying weapons, funds and even “operatives” for the Revolutionary Guards.
News reports in the Islamic Republic said the sanctioning of Mahan Air was the first American punishment for Iran’s allegedly plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador to the US in Washington.
That was false, however. The Treasury announcement of the sanctioning came out one day after Iranian-American Manssor Arbabsiar was indicted for plotting the assassination. But the Treasury announcement made explicitly clear that the Mahan sanctions were due to the airline’s work for the Pasdaran.
The Treasury announcement, in fact, went into unusual detail. It said Mahan Air was guilty of “secretly ferrying operatives, weapons and funds on its flights.… Mahan Air provided travel services to [Qods Force] personnel flown to and from Iran and Syria for military training. Mahan Air also facilitated the covert travel of suspected [Qods Force] officers into and out of Iraq by bypassing normal security procedures and not including information on flight manifests to eliminate records of the [Qods Force] travel.
“Mahan Air crews have facilitated [Qods Force] arms shipments. Funds were also transferred via Mahan Air for the procurement of controlled [sanctioned] goods by the [Qods Force].… Mahan Air has transported personnel, weapons and goods on behalf of Hezbollah and omitted from Mahan Air cargo manifests secret weapons shipments bound for Hezbollah.”
The description showed Mahan Air operating as the veritable handmaiden of the Qods Force and not just flying the occasional box the contents of which it was unaware.
The Iranian media uniformly avoided reporting that.
The sanctions mean that US “persons”—meaning legal residents such as students, refugees and green card holders as well as US citizens—are barred from doing business with Mahan Air and any assets the firm may have in the United State—likely to be none—are frozen. There is an exemption for ordinary flying, so US persons can still buy Mahan Air tickets and fly on the airline.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), based in Montreal, told the Iran Times the Treasury sanctions mean it will no longer provide any ticketing services to Mahan, just as it recently denied them to Iran Air when it was sanctioned. (See last week’s Iran Times, page two.)
Iran Air and Mahan Air are the only Iranian airlines so far sanctioned by the United States.
Iran’s PressTV said Mahan Air was now banned from flying into the United States because it had flown the accused assassin. That was false. No Iranian Airline has been allowed to fly into the United States for three decades.