US Enforces Sanctions Against Iranian Airline for Involvement in Terror Plot
Iran's airline Mahan Air is accused of being involved in terrorist activity
The U.S. has put sanctions on Iranian airline Mahan Air for aiding those involved in the Washington D.C. bomb and assassination plot, which was foiled by FBI and DEA forces this past week.
A criminal complaint was unsealed in New York federal court Tuesday documenting the $1.5 million assassination plot planned by 56-year-old Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri.
According to the criminal report, Arbabsiar, a Corpus Christi, Texas resident, had planned to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the U.S., Adel Al-Jubeir, and bomb Israeli and Saudi Arabian embassies in D.C.
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Both Arbabsiar and Shakuri have connections to Iran. Shakuri is a member of Iran’s Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.
The Quds have a history of supporting terrorist missions abroad.
According to BBC News, Mahan Air transported members of the “Quds and Hezbollah across the Middle East.”
“Under the sanctions, the airline’s assets will be frozen and US firms barred from doing business with it,” reported the British newspaper.
U.S. individual citizens are also barred from flying on the airline.
Besides providing transportation, the airline is also being accused of transferring funds and weapons for the Quds force, and omitting these weapon transfers from cargo manifests.
According to a statement released by the U.S. Treasury, the airline knowingly transported Quds personnel to Syria for military training.
Attorney General Eric Holder said in a press conference Tuesday that the U.S. would hold Iran responsible for the terror plot.
According to Holder, the plot was “conceived, sponsored, and directed by Iran.”
The terrorist plot was disrupted when Arbabsiar proposition a DEA informant, disguised as a member of the Zetas Mexican drug cartel, to aid in the attack.
He even wired $100,000 to the informant via a New York bank as a security deposit for the attack, which promised a $1.5 million reward for a successful assassination.
The FBI and DEA followed the threat under the codename “Operation Red Coalition.”
Arbabsiar was arrested on Sept. 30 in New York’s JFK airport after arriving on a flight from Mexico. Shakuri still remains at large.
While in jail, Arbabsiar made a phone call to Shakuri, urging him to go on with the assassination. The FBI recorded this phone conversation along with others and will use it as evidence in court.
President Barack Obama, who was briefed on the operation in June, praised U.S. intelligence agencies, referring to the foil as a “significant achievement for [U.S.] intelligence and law enforcement agencies.”
The Saudi Embassy in D.C. thanked the U.S. for disrupting the attempted murder plot.
