Defying Sanctions, Iranian Airline with Terror Ties Buys New Planes

An Iranian airline that has been sanctioned due to ties with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has purchased nine planes in violation of existing sanctions, the Financial Times reported today. According to the report, the airline, Mahan Air, purchased the planes from European companies using a front company.

The Financial Times reported that though Western diplomats fear that the planes could be used to transport weapons to Yemen, a member of Mahan’s board said that it would use the planes to address a shortage of planes within Iran, rather than transporting weapons internationally. However, a Mahan Air plane was turned away by Saudi jets earlier this year as it headed to Yemen.

While the suspensions of some sanctions have allowed Iran to purchase spare parts for planes, the sale of planes to Iran is still prohibited by American and European sanctions.

The Financial Times called the scheme through which Mahan purchased the planes “most ambitious,” and involved using an Iraqi airline, Al Naser, to purchase the modern Airbus planes, which, in turn, were sold or transferred to Mahan. Al Naser denies that it acted on behalf of Mahan, but the Financial Times reported that a diplomat traced payments from Mahan through Gulf-based companies to purchase the planes.

Reuters and other news agencies had reported that Iran announced the purchase of 15 second-hand planes, including nine, in the past week, but provided no other details.

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Mahan’s methods of setting up shell companies to mask purchases of sanctioned products was documented by Emanuele Ottolenghi in Iran is *Really* Good at Evading Sanctions, which was published in the September 2013 issue of The Tower Magazine.

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Read the full article here.