Argentina: Venezuelan plane crew grounded, crew searched - what has Iran got to do with it?
The Venezuelan transport plane, which once belonged to an Iranian airline, has been stranded at Buenos Aires International Airport since June 6, after Portuguese and Uruguay warned it had something suspicious.
The plane's crew includes Iranians, suspected of links to the Revolutionary Guards
News agencies
15/06/2022
Wednesday, 15 June, 2022, 10:06 Updated: 11:36
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A federal judge in Buenos Aires yesterday (Tuesday) ordered a raid on the Plaza Hotel out of town.
Police searched a hotel where a Venezuelan and Iranian crew of a Venezuelan transport plane stranded at the largest international airport in Buenos Aires had been staying for more than a week.
The judge ruled after the search, which he ordered on suspicion that crew members had possible links to Iranian terrorist acts, that the crew of the Venezuelan transport plane would not leave Argentina.
In addition, the staff's fingerprints were taken and their passports confiscated.
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Anibal Fernandez, Argentina's defense minister, said on Monday that he had information he had received from "foreign organizations" that some staff members might have links to the Revolutionary Guards.
A routine check found that "the plane's crew was larger than what was officially reported," Fernandez told Radio Profile on Monday.
"The matter is under investigation," he added.
The plane's crew includes 14 Venezuelan citizens and five Iranians.
The Paraguayan and Uruguayan governments were the ones to warn the Argentine government that there was an Iranian crew on the Boeing747-300 transport aircraft, operated by the Amtsorur company from Venezuela.
Paraguayan intelligence spotted on May 13 a flight from the country to Aruba, with a crew of 18 people from Venezuela and Iran, carrying $ 755,000 worth of cigarettes to the airport in Ciudad del Este.
On June 6, the plane took off from Mexico and landed in Cordoba, Argentina.
On June 8, he tried to continue to neighboring Uruguay, but was denied entry and returned to Ezeiza, landing at Ministro Pistrini International Airport.
"The decision not to board the plane was made on the basis of information from the Interior Ministry. We did not allow it to enter our airspace," Uruguayan Defense Minister Javier Garcia explained.
Iranian airline Han Air plane (Photo: Reuters)
The pilot of the transport plane is Kolamarza Qasmi Abbas, apparently a shareholder and member of the board of directors and CEO of Qeshm Fars Air, which the Revolutionary Guards used to transfer weapons and military equipment to Syria during the civil war. Former Revolutionary Guards officer.
Flag of the Revolutionary Guards (Photo: Reuters)
The decision to confiscate the plane's passports was made following a complaint lodged by the Delegation of Jewish Institutions in Argentina (DAIA), representing the Jewish community of Argentina, who wanted to be included as a prosecutor in the authorities' investigation because some Iranians were involved in the attack. In the building of the Jewish community in Argentina AMIA.
A suicide bombing in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, on July 18, 1994 claimed the lives of 85 people and injured 330.
The attack was one of two attacks carried out in Argentina in the 1990s against Israeli and Jewish targets, and is considered one of the most severe attacks carried out on Argentine soil.
Hezbollah, although not responsible for the attack, claimed that it was carried out in response to the assassination of Abbas Mousavi by the IDF in February 1992.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (Photo: Reuters)
The Boeing plane, which was owned by the Iranian Mahan Air, was sold to Amtsor about a year ago.
Mahan Air is suspected by the United States of providing services to terrorist organizations, most notably weapons, military equipment, money and people to Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guards.
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guido said Maduro "opened the doors of the country to global authoritarianism and his terrorist organizations", to you support for a dictatorship in Venezuela is "also support for terrorism", he added.
"What happened to the plane that landed in Argentina should serve as a warning bell for the democrat's democracy," he said.
Iran, on the other hand, said Argentina's actions were part of a "propaganda" campaign against Tehran amid tensions between the West over the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Said Khatibzadeh told reporters that his ground plane was part of efforts to "cause a sense of insecurity."
The plane was sold by the Iranian airline from Han Air to the Venezuelan company last year,
"The last few weeks have been full of propaganda, a war of words that wants to infiltrate the minds and peace of the people ... this news is part of it," Khatibazadeh said.
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