Mahan Air Flights to Paris to Suspend “Due to Sanctions”
An official of Mahan Air airline says the company’s flights to Paris will be suspended due to sanctions. Two months ago, the German government had also revoked the flight permit for Mahan Air aircraft to that country.
Mahan Air has announced that its flights to Paris will be suspended soon. Previously, Mahan Air operated three round-trip flights per week between Tehran and Paris.
French news agency reported on Tuesday evening, March 19, citing an official of Mahan Air, that the airline’s round-trip flights to Paris will be suspended from the beginning of April. He cited French sanctions against the Islamic Republic as the reason for this decision and provided no further details about the nature of these sanctions.
Mahan Air was placed on the United States sanctions list in 2011 as the second airline of the Islamic Republic, accused of cooperating with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In recent years, the United States has repeatedly accused Mahan Air of transferring military personnel and equipment to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and other Iran-backed groups in Syria.
According to reports, U.S. President Donald Trump, after announcing the United States’ withdrawal from the nuclear deal and the return of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, pressured his European allies to align with Washington, including sanctioning Mahan Air.
U.S. Pressure and Revocation of Flight Permit to Germany
Apparently, these pressures were not without effect on the German government’s decision to revoke Mahan Air’s flight permit to that country. Heiko Maas, German Foreign Minister, initially cited the transportation of weapons and soldiers to conflict zones in Syria by Mahan Air as the reason for this action and called the decision necessary.
Bijan Djir-Sarai, an Iranian-born spokesman for the Free Democratic Party (FDP) faction’s foreign relations, had said in an interview with Deutsche Welle at that time that Germany’s decision to revoke Mahan Air’s flight permit was made after pressure from the U.S. government.
Following the announcement of the revocation of Mahan Air’s permit to fly to Düsseldorf and Munich, some U.S. politicians, including the Treasury Secretary and the U.S. ambassador to Berlin, praised the move and described it as a step toward combating terrorism. Nevertheless, Steffen Seibert, spokesman for the German government, denied that Washington’s pressure played a role in this decision.
Mahan Air’s flights to European countries were also banned for approximately one year in September 2007 due to what was described as non-compliance with European Union safety standards. France has not officially provided any explanation regarding the reason for sanctioning Mahan Air and the revocation of its flight permit to Paris.
Source: DW
