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Iran Airlines
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The Hill, Sept. 17, 2016 - Last week, the Obama
administration admitted, during a congressional hearing, that it had
authorized cash payments to Iran, timed with the release of U.S.
hostages, in January. Cash was reportedly loaded onto an unmarked
Iranian cargo plane before it was flown back to Tehran.
Congress was
right to criticize the administration over this episode. So why should
it now let the president approve the largest sale of U.S.-manufactured
airplanes to Iran Air, an accomplice to mass murder in Syria?
Iran
Air is negotiating an agreement for the purchase of 100 aircraft from
the aviation industry giant Boeing. It is also taking part in the
weapons and military personnel airlift to Syria that Iran's Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, is coordinating on Tehran's behalf.
The
morning of the hearing, while administration officials were reassuring
Congress that the money was being used to address 'critical economic
needs,' an Iran Air Airbus A300 took off from Tehran, bound for
Damascus. But instead of heading to its stated destination, Flight IR697
headed south, to the Iranian port city of Abadan, where it landed for a
quick stopover before continuing to the Syrian capital.
For over a
year now, Abadan's airport has served as the principal logistics hub for
the IRGC airlift in support of Syria's loyalist armed forces and the
Shiite militias, which Iran dispatched to Syria, alongside its own Quds
Force, to save the Syrian regime from collapsing.
Usually, Iran's
Mahan Air and Pouya Air run the airlift alongside Damascus's state-owned
airline, Syria Air. Between 2011 and 2013, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned
the three airlines under Executive Order 13224 as entities engaged in
the support of terrorism over their material role in the IRGC's airlift
to Syria.
That Mahan, Pouya and Syria Air would continue to carry
their deadly cargoes is not surprising. They have nothing to lose. Based
on available information on the commercial flight tracker Flight Radar
24, there were at least 195 Mahan Air flights to Syria over the last
year.
Iran Air, on the other hand, has much to gain from sitting out
the airlift. Last year's nuclear agreement between Iran and six world
powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), left
Mahan, Pouya and Syria Air under sanctions, but it delisted hundreds of
Iranian entities previously involved in proliferation activities. One of
them was Iran Air.
The JCPOA not only removed sanctions against the
company, but it lifted aviation sanctions against Iran in general,
making it possible for Iranian airlines not under sanctions to purchase
new aircraft and spare parts, sign maintenance deals and obtain training
for its technicians.
Iran Air has taken full advantage of this. In
January, it signed a deal with European industry giant Airbus for 118
aircraft. The Boeing deal would add 100 more. Other deals are being
negotiated that would dramatically increase Iran Air's current fleet of
36 aircraft to several hundred.
Participating in the Syria airlift
could jeopardize all of this. Under the JCPOA, Washington cannot
re-impose nuclear sanctions against entities that have been removed from
the sanctions list. But it can slap terrorism sanctions against any of
them if they were demonstrably involved in activities covered by
Executive Order 13224.
Carrying weapons and personnel to Syria is one
such case. Flight records show that Iran Air's flight 697 — the
Tehran-Damascus route — was operated 66 times over the last year,
including three times from Abadan, on Sept. 8, June 9 and May 10. There
were at least an additional 20 Iran Air flights to Damascus between Dec.
14, 2015, and the end of August 2016. Not all originated in Tehran,
however. On Feb. 14; June 5, 6 and 7; July 24 and 25; and Aug. 10,
aircraft took off from Yazd. On June 25, it originated from Kermanshah.
And on July 30 and Aug. 6, 8 and 28, it departed from Abadan.
Many of
these flights switched off their transponders above the western Iraqi
desert, and in some cases, for part of their journey in Iranian
airspace. Moreover, in the abovementioned cases, the flight number's
associated route did not match the actual plane's journey. These
practices are illegal under international civil aviation rules, and also
reveal the intention to conceal the aircraft itinerary and likely its
cargo.
Iran has never hidden its resolve to keep Syrian President
Bashar Assad in power at whatever cost. The ayatollahs also have a track
record of suborning their country's economy to the pursuit of
revolutionary goals. It is not surprising that they instructed Iran Air
to contribute to the Syria war effort, but it is disconcerting that
Washington has ignored this evidence and allowed Boeing to continue its
negotiations. Disconcerting, but given how badly the administration
wants the nuclear deal to succeed, not surprising.
Success, however,
cannot come at the cost of compliance. The next president should take
note of what is by now glaringly obvious: Iran Air should be sanctioned
for its role in perpetuating and exacerbating the Syrian civil war.
