Iranian state media said on Sunday that Argentinian authorities have impounded a Boeing 747 plane that the original owner, Iran's Mahan Air, said was sold to a Venezuelan airline a year ago. There was no official confirmation of the reports.
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"The ownership of the aircraft was transferred a year ago and it was sold to a Venezuelan company," Mahan's spokesperson Amir Hossein Zolanvari told the official news agency IRNA. Zolanvari did not name the Venezuelan company.
It was not immediately clear if the plane was on a list of Iranian aircraft under US sanctions. Mahan Air has been under US sanctions since 2011 for its support for Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.
Iran and Venezuela, which are both under US sanctions, have close ties. The two countries on Saturday signed a 20-year cooperation plan.
The Boeing aircraft carries the tail sign YV3531 and is currently held in Eiza, not far from the capital Buenos Aires. According to local reports, the crew comprises 19 people, including 14 Venezuelan nationals and five Iranian citizens. Sources in the Argentinian presidency told Clarín that the aircraft had been transporting "spare parts for vehicles." The aircraft appears to be carrying the livery of the Venezuelan carrier Emtrasur, a subsidiary of the national airline. Both are under US sanctions since February 2020. It was bought from Mahan Air and according to the sources it has occasionally been used by Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
The plan arrived from Caracas on June 6th and departed from Buenos Aires to Montevideo several days ago but was denied passage from Uruguian authorities and as a result landed back in Argentina, at which point it was flagged by authorities who went on to impound it over its alleged ties to Iranian entities.
An Argentinian lawmaker told Israel Hayom that the flight path and the number of people on board is highly unusual. "A cargo plane never has 19 crew members on board, it just doesn't make sense in a cost-benefit analysis," the lawmaker said, adding that at least The lawmaker also asked that the law enforcement officials take fingerprints for the arrested Iranians in order to run them through a registry of wanted individuals in the West. According to the official, "This appears to be a joint operation by Iranian intelligence and the SEBIN," referring to the chief intelligence agency in Venezuela. The lawmaker further claimed that at least two of the Iranian crew members were reportedly linked to the Guards.
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