July 29, 2022
Argentina has detained a mysterious plane carrying five Iranians ever since it landed at the Buenos Aires main international airport June 6.
The Iranians have not been accused of anything by the Argentine police.
But Argentines have remained suspicious of almost anything Iranian for the last quarter century ever since Argentina linked Iran to the 1994 truck-bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 86 people.
Despite the passage of almost two months, there has been no clarity from the Argentine police as to why they are detaining the plane and the Iranians and Venezuelans on board.
But then, despite the passage of 28 years, there has never been much clarity on the bombing of the Jewish community center either.
The Argentine police and judiciary are not noted for professionalism—or competence—or honesty.
The plane has been stuck at Argentina’s largest airport since June 6 as Argentine authorities have seized the passports of the five Iranian and 14 Venezuelan crew members who arrived in Argentina aboard the plane.
Argentina’s security minister, Anibal Fernandez, said the government received information from foreign intelligence agencies that at least some of the Iranian crewmen were part of “companies related to the Qods Force of the Revolutionary Guard of Iran,” which has been officially listed as a terrorist organization by the US government since 2007. He also said one of the crew members is “a relative of the Iranian interior minister,” Ahmad Vahidi, a Pasdar brigadier general who stands accused by Argentina of a role in the bombing of the Jewish community center.
There do not appear to be any warrants out for the arrest of any of the crewmembers.
One of the Iranians aboard was named Gholam-Reza Ghasemi, according to his passport. A man of that name has been sanctioned by the US for terrorism. However, Security Minister Fernandez says the Gholam-Reza Ghasemi on the plane is not the Gholam-Reza Ghasemi sanctioned by the US.
One of the oddities of the case is that Argentine officials like Fernandez all say there is nothing wrong about the plane or its crew—but Argentina still detains both the plane and the crew. Officials have said they searched the plane and found no illegal items among the cargo.
Cecilia Incardona, the prosecutor assigned to lead the investigation, said the “irregular circumstances” surrounding the plane mandated an investigation to determine “if the true objective of the airplane’s arrival in our country was exclusively to transport auto parts” or whether it was really “preparation to provide goods or money that could be used or terrorist activity, its financing or organization.”
But Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said the plane was stuck in Argentina only due to refueling difficulties stemming from US sanctions on Venezuela. Contradicting prosecutor Incardona, he said there was “no irregularity” regarding the plane.
There are numerous suspicions surrounding the plane, including the way in which its operators reported a lower number of crewmembers than were actually on board, and the crew size was unusually large for a cargo plane. The airplane also reportedly made some flights with its transponder turned off, inducing still further suspicions.
Until the Boeing 747 was sold to Venezuela’s Emtrasur airline about a year ago, the plane had been owned by Mahan Air of Iran, which the US government has sanctioned for allegedly aiding the Qods Force. Some accounts assert that the plane was just leased to Emtrasur and is really still owned by Mahan. Emtrasur reportedly only has that single plane in its fleet.
The United States ambassador to Argentina, Marc Stanley, issued a bland statement that said, “We are following with great interest the judicial and law enforcement investigations into the crew and the plane and thank the investigative efforts of Argentine authorities to clear up the situation.” There was no suggestion from anyone in Argentina that Washington asked for the plane to be detained.
However, the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires issued a starker statement. It said, “The State of Israel is particularly concerned about the activity of the Iranian airlines Mahan Air and Qeshm Fars Air in Latin America, companies engaged in arms trafficking, transfer of people and equipment that operate for the Qods Force.”
The plane had stopped in other Latin American countries, including Paraguay and Mexico, in earlier months, according to flight tracking services.
Opposition leaders in Argentina have criticized the government for allowing the plane to land in the country.
Gerardo Millman, one of the two opposition leaders who filed a judicial complaint calling for an investigation of the crew, said the plane flew with its transponder turned off, which could have been used to evade detection from air traffic control towers.
Argentine authorities insist they have not found any irregularities in the plane’s crew and the head of the Federal Intelligence Agency, Agustín Rossi, criticized the opposition for linking it to international terrorism.
Rossi said the plane carried cargo for several Argentine auto parts companies that it loaded in Mexico before stopping at Caracas and arriving in Argentina June 6.
The unusually large crew had earlier raised suspicions in Paraguay, where the plane landed and remained between May 13 and May 16, Paraguay’s interior minister, Federico Gonzalez, told a local radio station.
The plane landed in Paraguay with “18 crew members, of which seven were Iranians and 11 Venezuelans,” Douglas Cubilla, head of airports at Paraguay’s National Civil Aeronautics Directorate, had told a local radio station May 18. “Cargo planes always have six or seven crewmembers” and the large number of crewmembers “caught our eye.”
The president of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benitez, told a news conference that one of the crew members on the plane “even had an operation to change his face in Cuba.”
Two directorate officials, including the head of Paraguay’s Ciudad del Este airport, have been removed from their posts as a result of irregularities involving the plane, Gonzalez said, without detailing what the irregularities were.
Gonzalez said Paraguay alerted intelligence agencies in the region about the plane and its crew, although he did not specify when that took place.
Argentina suffered two terrorist attacks that authorities blame on Iran—a 1992 explosion at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and another at the Jewish community center in 1994. Argentina is seeking the arrest of several Iranian officials, though Iran denies involvement.