US Blacklists UAE Firms for Supporting Iran Airline

By Giuseppe Cacace

The US Treasury placed two United Arab Emirates-based companies on its sanctions blacklist Wednesday for their support of Iran's already-sanctioned Mahan Air.

UAE-based Parthia Cargo and Delta Parts Supply FZC "have provided key parts and logistics services for Mahan Air," the Treasury said.

The two companies were involved in obtaining spare parts and materials for US-made jets that Mahan operates—sanctions block Iran from freely acquiring those parts. 

Mahan, one of Iran's leading carriers, has been blacklisted under US counterterrorism regulations for its close relationship with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, which Washington says carries out terror activities in the Middle East.

Mahan Air especially has been used by the Revolutionary Guards to support the regimes of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, according to the Treasury.

"The Iranian regime uses Mahan Air as a tool to spread its destabilizing agenda around the world, including to the corrupt regimes in Syria and Venezuela, as well as terrorist groups throughout the Middle East," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement.

"The United States will continue to take action against those supporting this airline."

The Treasury also placed sanctions on UAE-based Iranian national Amin Mahdavi, who the Treasury said either owns or controls Parthia Cargo.

The sanctions aim at blocking those targeted from accessing global financial and commercial networks by forbidding anyone from trading with them.

In a parallel move, the US Justice Department filed criminal charges in federal court in Washington against Mahdavi and Parthia for "participating in a criminal conspiracy to violate US export laws and sanctions against Iran."

Photo: Wikicommons

Indonesian Man and Three Companies Breached Iran Sanctions, U.S. Says

By Andrew Harris and Harry Suhartono

An Indonesian man and three businesses from that nation have been charged with plotting to send goods and technology to Iran in violation of American economic sanctions.

Sunarko Kuntjoro, who remains at large in Indonesia, and the three companies face an eight-count indictment in Washington, federal prosecutors said in a statement Tuesday. The three companies are PT MS Aero Support, PT Kandiyasa Energi Utama and PT Antasena Kreasi.

“The U.S.-origin goods were destined for an Iranian aviation business end user, Mahan Air, and the defendants conspired to make a financial profit for themselves and other conspirators, and to evade export regulations, prohibitions and licensing requirements,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

The airline was not charged. Kuntjoro, a former director at Indonesian flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia, said he couldn’t comment and that he hadn’t been formally notified. Calls to Aero Support and Kandiyasa Energi went unanswered. Contact information for Antasena Kreasi wasn’t immediately available.

Kuntjoro, 68, who is identified as the majority owner of MS Aero Support, is accused of plotting with Mahan Air, one of its executives, and an American person and company to ship goods owned by Mahan Air to the U.S. for repair and re-export them to Iran. The American person and company weren’t named or charged.

The conspiracy ran from 2011 to 2018, prosecutors said.

Kuntjoro is also charged with money laundering and other crimes. Information on his attorney wasn’t immediately available.

Photo: IRNA

US Hopeful for Iran Prisoner Talks But Imposes New Sanctions

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday he hoped for further dialogue with Iran to free prisoners but announced new sanctions as he vowed no let-up in pressure.

Iran has also voiced a willingness for more prisoner swaps after the exchange Saturday of Xiyue Wang, a US scholar detained since 2016, for Massoud Soleimani, an Iranian scientist detained in the United States since last year.

"I do hope that the exchange that took place will lead to a broader discussion on consular affairs. We still have Americans held in Iran—too many, for sure." Pompeo told reporters.

Pompeo said the United States will "follow every even tiny opening" to free the at least handful of Americans known to be in Iranian custody.

"I hope it portends well for this. We have had some indication that may be the case, but I don't want to overstate that and I don't want to give false optimism about that pathway," Pompeo said.

Pompeo, however, said the United States would not deviate from its campaign of trying to strangle Iran's economy through sanctions.

"As long as its malign behavior continues, so will our campaign of maximum pressure," Pompeo said.

In the latest measures, the Treasury Department slapped sanctions on shipping networks owned by Iranian businessman Abdolhossein Khedri as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and its China-based subsidiary, E-Sail Shipping.

The Treasury Department said the companies have been used by the elite Revolutionary Guards' Qods Force to send weapons to Yemen's Huthi rebels, who are battling US ally Saudi Arabia.

The Treasury Department also designated sales offices in Hong Kong and Dubai for Iran's Mahan Air, which is already under US sanctions.

The United States says that the airline has assisted the clerical regime by flying fighters and supplies to war-ravaged Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad.

President Donald Trump, who has close relations with Iran's rivals Saudi Arabia and Israel, last year pulled out of a multinational deal on Tehran's nuclear program and imposed sweeping sanctions aimed at curbing the clerical regime's regional influence.

Photo: Wikicommons

Iran's Mahan Air Cancels Paris Flights Over 'Sanctions'

Iran's Mahan Air has been forced to cancel its Paris flights over "sanctions", its customer services team said Tuesday weeks after Germany banned the airline.

"We have been told that (flights to France) have been cancelled... as of the first of April," an operator at the airline's office in Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport told AFP.

The Paris schedule will be scrapped "because of sanctions" by the French, the source said by phone without elaborating.

Two of the airline's French customers in Iran were notified by email that their flights booked for next month were cancelled.

Mahan, the Islamic republic's second-largest carrier after Iran Air, flies up to four services a week between Tehran and Paris.

Germany imposed a ban on Mahan in January, which the foreign ministry said was necessary to protect Berlin's "foreign and security policy interests.”

That decision came amid broader sanctions adopted by the European Union against Tehran over attacks on opponents in the bloc. 

Iran has denied any involvement in the alleged plots and described Germany's move as "hasty and unjustifiable."

Mahan Air was blacklisted by the US in 2011, as Washington said the carrier was providing technical and material support to an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards known as the Quds Force.

Photo Credit: Wikicommons

Iran Deplores 'Unjustifiable' German Banning of Mahan Air

Iran's foreign ministry on Tuesday deplored Germany's decision to ban Iranian airline Mahan air from its airports describing the move as "hasty and unjustifiable.”

"The rescinding of Mahan Air's flight permits to Germany is a hasty, unjustifiable act," the ministry said in a statement.

"This action is in conflict with the spirit governing the long-standing relations between the Iranian and German nations," and "contrary to the interests of bilateral relations, it said.

Iran said it hope Germany will reconsider its decision.

Germany said on Monday it had banned Mahan Air from its airports.

Germany foreign ministry spokesman Christofer Burger told reporters in Berlin the move was necessary to protect Germany's "foreign and security policy interests".

A spokeswoman at Germany's transport ministry said Iran had been informed that the ban would take effect from Monday and involve Mahan Air flights from and to Germany.

Mahan Air, Iran's second-largest carrier after Iran Air, flies four services a week between Tehran and the German cities of Dusseldorf and Munich.

The ban caused confusion and chaos for Mahan Air passengers as the airline rushed to secure replacement flights for them.

"I've been in the aviation industry for decades, and I've never seen such a thing" a Mahan Air employee from the company's Dusseldorf office told AFP in Tehran on Tuesday.

"It borders on cruelty for all of these passengers," he said on condition of anonymity, adding that staff had been fielding calls from distraught passengers all day long.

Mahan air was blacklisted by the US in 2011, as Washington said the carrier was providing technical and material support to an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards known as the Quds Force.

Iran's aging air fleet has had a string of crashes in recent years mostly due to tough decades-long US sanctions hindering the purchase of new airplanes and critical spare parts for its civilian fleet.

Hopes for a change in the situation were dashed last May when Washington pulled out of a landmark 2015 deal over Iran's nuclear program, reimposing sanctions that had been lifted as part of the multilateral accord.

Photo Credit:

Germany Plans to Sanction Iran Airline

Germany said Monday it had banned Iranian airline Mahan Air from its airports, in an escalation of sanctions adopted by the European Union against Tehran over attacks on opponents in the bloc.

The move was necessary to protect Germany's "foreign and security policy interests", foreign ministry spokesman Christofer Burger told reporters at a regular Berlin press conference.

Officials at the Federal Aviation Office (LBA) sent Tehran-based Mahan Air a notification "ordering the immediate suspension of its authorization to operate passenger flights from and to Germany" from Monday, a transport ministry spokeswoman added.

Mahan, Iran's second-largest carrier after Iran Air, flies four services a week between Tehran and the German cities of Duesseldorf and Munich.

It was blacklisted by the US in 2011, as Washington said the carrier was providing technical and material support to an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards known as the Quds Force.

The US treasury has threatened sanctions against countries and companies offering the airline's 31 aircraft landing rights or services such as on-board dining.

But Brussels and Washington have been at odds on how best to deal with Iran since President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from a 2015 deal lifting some sanctions in exchange for Tehran suspending its nuclear program.

'Destabilizing Activity'

Foreign ministry spokesman Burger reiterated that Germany wished to "uphold" the agreement "and play our part in keeping economic exchange with Iran possible".

"But we have always said that destabilizing activity by Iran in the (Middle East) region as well as Iran's ballistic missile program are unacceptable," he added.

"On top of that, there are recent indications regarding the activities of Iran's secret services within EU states."

The EU earlier this month targeted sanctions at Iran's security services and two of their leaders, accused of involvement in a series of murders and planned attacks against Tehran critics in the Netherlands, Denmark and France.

Brussels' measures included freezing funds and financial assets belonging to Iran's intelligence ministry and individual officials, but did not target any companies.

US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, a close Trump ally, welcomed Berlin's decision.

"Mahan Air has flown terrorists, weapons, equipment, and funds to international locations to support Iranian terrorist proxy groups," he said in a statement, adding that it had been used "to support the Assad regime in Syria."

Since his arrival, Grenell has exerted unusually intense pressure on German firms over Iran sanctions.

Rail operator Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Telekom, Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler and industrial group Siemens have all said they will stop their operations in the country.

Last week German authorities said they had arrested a German-Afghan military advisor on suspicion of spying for Iran.

Photo Credit: IRNA