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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Trump Admin Pressing Allies to Ban Iranian Airline Tied to Terrorism, Espionage |
| 2019-01-24 |
| [Free Beacon] The Trump administration is locked in a diplomatic push to convince European allies to ban a major Iranian state-controlled airline known to be engaged in illicit transport and espionage operations, according to U.S. officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon. Germany's decision to ban Iran's Mahan Air‐a state-controlled entity known to carry out clandestine military operations on the Islamic Republic's behalf‐is being viewed as a diplomatic coup by the top U.S. official in Berlin and is said to be generating support for expanding this ban across the European Union, a move that would deal a severe blow to Tehran's international reach, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The ban on Mahan has been in the works for months, according to senior U.S. officials, who told the Free Beacon the airline is complicit in the Iranian regime's spying and military operations. Efforts to crackdown on Mahan follow a similar pressure campaign by the Trump administration to prevent Iran from airlifting out of Germany millions of dollars. U.S. officials familiar with the ongoing diplomatic matter described Iran as trying to airlift several planeloads of cash out of Germany, a major cash influx that could have aided Iran's expansionist foreign policy goals, including its operations in Syria, Yemen, and other regional hotspots. The amount was so large that Iran attempted to use multiple planes to airlift the cash, an effort that was recently stopped in no small part by top U.S. officials stationed in Germany, sources said. The next leg of the administration's diplomatic push will focus on convincing France and other leading European countries to also enact a ban on Mahan as part of a wide-ranging national security readjustment aimed at collapsing Iran's illicit financial and military channels, officials said. The United States pursued and cracked down on Iran's efforts to fly the cash out of Germany immediately, officials confirmed. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |