The relative ease with which Iran smuggles passenger aircraft through Indonesia reflects a broader reluctance on the part of the country’s political and security institutions to curb such activities.

By Babak Taghvaee, Middle East Forum

While Iran’s aviation industry has been a primary target of U.S. sanctions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iranian airlines, particularly those connected with or owned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, evade sanction to import passenger and cargo aircraft for both commercial and military use.

President Donald Trump’s 2024 election and the re-imposition of a maximum-pressure campaign by his administration has hampered routes used by Iranian airlines to acquire and smuggle aircraft and spare parts.

Despite the maximum-pressure campaign, on April 18, 2025, Iran Air, Mahan Air, and Caspian Airlines acquired five passenger planes for Iran.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury previously sanctioned Mahan Air and Caspian Airlines for smuggling weapons to Syria.

In the latest instance, Iran Air smuggled a pair of former Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A330-243 widebody planes to Tehran’s Mehrabad airport via Muscat, Oman, while Mahan Air and Caspian Airlines imported an RJ100 and two unknown Boeing 737-300 passenger aircraft via Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country.

While the RJ100 is British-made, it is equipped with four American-made Lycoming LF507-1F engines.

Iranian state media falsely claim that the U.S. government green-lit these imports. While Iran acquired the aircraft during the Biden administration, Iranian authorities smuggled them into Iran only subsequently.

Tehran timed the airplane transfer to the recent nuclear negotiations. By portraying the arrival of these five aircraft as a direct outcome of recent nuclear negotiations, the Iranian regime seeks to frame the development as a diplomatic achievement.

State-controlled media instrumentalized the coverage of the aircraft’s arrival to shape public perception amidst the devaluation of the Iranian rial against the U.S. dollar.

Iranian Civil Aviation Organization sources suggest new attempts by both Iran Air and Mahan Air to smuggle a third Airbus A330-243 widebody passenger aircraft and a Boeing 747-400 series cargo airplane into Iran via Oman and Indonesia, respectively.

Mahan Air’s Fars Air Qeshm most likely will be the operator of the cargo aircraft.

This subsidiary has played an important role in airlifting weaponry and ammunition for the Iranian Defense Ministry, as well as Turkish defense firms, to Ethiopia, Myanmar, Serbia, Syria, Sudan, and Venezuela using a pair of aging Boeing 747-281Fs.

The relative ease with which Iran smuggles passenger aircraft through Indonesia reflects a broader reluctance on the part of the country’s political and security institutions to curb such activities.

Indonesia has played an important role in Iranian airlines’ sanction evasion.

In the past three years, Mahan Air has used several Indonesian companies, including PT Asia Global Airlines, to smuggle at least 12 aircraft—two former French Air Force Airbus A340-211s, five Embraer ERJ-145LRs, three Avro EJ85s, and two RJ100s, including one that flew from Clark International Airport in the Philippines to Khomeini International Airport of Tehran after refueling at Hang Nadim International Airport in Batam, Indonesia, where, on April 18, 2025, it received a San Marino aircraft registration code.

Through the imposition of targeted sanctions on front companies associated with Mahan Air and other Iranian airlines operating in Indonesia—coupled with sustained diplomatic pressure—the U.S. Department of State and the Department of the Treasury have the potential to disrupt, if not ultimately dismantle, the sanction-evasion networks utilized by Iranian carriers within the Indonesian jurisdiction.

The post How Iran evades sanctions via world’s largest Muslim country appeared first on World Israel News.

According to a 2022 report by the Alma Research and Education Center, Mahan Air serves as the Islamic Republic’s main cover for transporting weapons.

By Joshua Marks, JNS

Israeli fighter jets on Sunday night intercepted an Iranian “commercial” plane over Syria suspected to be transporting weapons to Hezbollah, forcing it to return to Tehran, according to Hebrew media reports.

The operation was part of efforts to maintain the Nov. 27 ceasefire agreement that ended over a year of hostilities between Israel and the Iranian-backed terror group.

Israeli Air Force fighter jets. Credit: Israeli Defense Ministry Spokesperson’s Office.

The “Letter of Guarantees,” an annex to the agreement, underscores the United States’ commitment to collaborating with Israel to counter Iran’s destabilizing activities in Lebanon, including halting the transfer of weapons, proxies and materials into Lebanon from Iranian territory.

Additional provisions in the two-and-a-half-page U.S.-Israel side deal reportedly include guarantees of Israeli operational freedom against Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire.

The Israel Defense Forces is authorized to counter immediate threats in Southern Lebanon, such as observed preparations for a Hezbollah rocket launch, and also to address emerging threats, for example the digging of new tunnels or arms transfers, if Lebanon’s government is unwilling or unable to act.

According to a 2022 report by the Alma Research and Education Center, Mahan Air serves as the Islamic Republic’s main cover for transporting weapons.

Jerusalem has struck Hezbollah weapons-smuggling operations in Syria numerous times during the war and since the ceasefire took effect.

The IAF on Saturday attacked terrorist infrastructure along the Syria-Lebanon border that according to Israel Hezbollah was “actively using” to smuggle arms.

“The strike was conducted after identifying the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah from Syria to Lebanon, even after the ceasefire agreement, constituting a threat to the State of Israel and a violation of the terms of the truce,” the Israel Defense Forces said.

The military accused the Iranian proxy of smuggling weapons through civilian crossing points, with the backing of Syria’s Assad regime.

Hours before the ceasefire went into effect last week, Israel for the first time carried out airstrikes targeting Lebanon’s three northern border crossings with Syria.

Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, responsible for the terrorist group’s weapons smuggling into Lebanon from Iran via Syria, has been a frequent target of Israeli strikes, according to the IDF.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Jerusalem is constantly monitoring the situation in Syria, after Sunni jihadist rebels over the weekend took control of Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city.

“We are determined to protect Israel’s vital interests and preserve the achievements of the war,” Netanyahu told Israel Defense Forces recruits at the Tel Hashomer induction center in Ramat Gan.

“In this regard, we are strictly enforcing the ceasefire agreement. Every violation is met with a strong IDF response. That has been the case and will continue to be the case. We will maintain Israel’s security.”

IDF thwarts ceasefire violations

Troops continue to address ceasefire violations as they stay in their positions for the next two months during the gradual drawdown of ground forces in Southern Lebanon. According to the terms of the truce, Hezbollah must retreat north of the Litani River.

In the past 24 hours, the IDF conducted operations at multiple locations in Southern Lebanon to neutralize terrorist threats. On Saturday, soldiers eliminated several armed terrorists near a church.

According to the IDF, they were operatives in Hezbollah’s Khiam ground defense, anti-tank missile and artillery units, and had fired at the troops from the church.

Israeli forces searched the church following the incident, locating a tunnel shaft containing weapons.

“The IDF remains in Southern Lebanon and acts against any threat to the State of Israel,” the military stated.

France accuses Israel of ceasefire violations

Paris, a member of the Washington-led monitoring mechanism overseeing the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire agreement, has accused Jerusalem of committing 52 ceasefire violations, according to Hebrew media reports on Sunday which cited French diplomatic sources.

The sources alleged that Israel had bypassed the established channels for reporting violations before taking action.

The reports also claim that three Lebanese civilians were killed and highlight an increase in Israeli drone activity, claiming that low-altitude flights over Beirut had resumed.

Paris is reportedly in ongoing communication with Lebanese Army Chief of Staff Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Mikati to address these developments.

“The Lebanese are fully committed to upholding the ceasefire and preventing Hezbollah from reestablishing its presence in southern Lebanon, but they need time to demonstrate their efforts,” a French official told Ynet on Sunday.

According to a separate report by i24NEWS on Sunday, Jerusalem stated that the agreement’s implementation mechanism “will begin to accelerate” on Monday and Tuesday.

An Israeli diplomatic source emphasized that “any violation will be met with a significant response, as is already happening on the ground.”

The post Israeli jets intercept Iranian ‘commercial’ plane, force return to Iran appeared first on World Israel News.

Mahan Air, Iran’s largest airline, long has been an important element in Qods Force logistics.

By Babak Taghvaee, Middle East Forum

After a bomb killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps guest house in northern Tehran on July 31, 2024, Iranian leaders swore revenge upon Israel, whom they blamed for the assassination.

Theirs was not empty rhetoric. Almost immediately, the Islamic Republic began a three-week airlift of weaponry to Hezbollah.

The mechanics of the airlift were simple.

A day after Haniyeh’s death, Mahan Air used an Airbus A340-212 previously owned by the French Air and Space Force to shuttle weapons, including suicide drones, from Tehran-Mehrabad Airport to Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport on August 1, 2024.

The same aircraft logged three more flights between Tehran and Beirut over the next three weeks.

After these arms-delivery flights to Beirut, the Israel Defense Forces detected a sudden surge in Hezbollah’s use of a new variant of the Shahed-101 one-way attack drone.

Wreckage of these drones found in northern Israel indicated the use of German components, including engines recently procured and supplied by Iran.

The transportation of these components to Lebanon by aircraft allowed Hezbollah to quickly assemble and prepare them for attacks on Israel.

A Mahan Air A340-313 also airlifted weapons and operatives to Beirut on August 8, 9, 15, and 16.

Before entering Lebanese airspace, pilots turned off their Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast to hide their location from flight-tracking websites.

Mahan Air, Iran’s largest airline, long has been an important element in Qods Force logistics.

Satellite imagery shows the aircraft parked on the military apron in the south of Mehrabad airport before each flight to Beirut.

The Qods Force loaded cargo pallets originating from an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps storage site next to the apron.

Before 2022, the Qods Force avoided using Mahan Air passenger aircraft to airlift weapons to Lebanon, instead flying weaponry to Damascus and transferring them overland into Lebanon.

The subsequent decision to bypass Syria likely reflects the success of Israeli Air Force precision strikes at Syrian weapons depots and Damascus International Airport itself.

The Biden administration’s refusal to update the sanctions list on Mahan Air’s A340 fleet gives Tehran an opportunity to arm Lebanon directly and easily; today, only eight of Mahan Air’s 15 Airbus A340s are listed in the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s latest Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list.

The loophole not only allows Mahan Air to fuel the fire on Israel’s northern border, but it also undercuts Western leverage on Lebanon to deny landing permits and ground support.

While Biden officials talk the talk about diplomacy and de-escalation, a failure to walk the walk and update America’s own legal framework today undermines efforts for peace.

The post How to stop Iran’s airlift to Hezbollah appeared first on World Israel News.

The detained Iranians were planning to carry out attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Argentina, an Israeli TV report said.

By World Israel News Staff 

One of five men aboard an Iranian-linked plane grounded near Buenos Aires last week is a captain in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp’s elite Quds Force, Paraguay’s intelligence chief said over the weekend.

Argentina, for its part, dismissed his remarks as conjecture, the AFP news agency said.

The man, identified as Captain Gholamreza Ghasemi, was detained along with four other Iranian and 14 Venezuelan crew members when the plane was grounded. The five Iranians had their passports confiscated.

The Mahan Air aircraft, leased to a Venezuelan state-owned Emtrasur airline a year ago, was seized by authorities after reportedly transporting car parts from Mexico to Buenos Aires.

According to intelligence chief Esteban Aquino, Ghasemi was a member of the Quds force’s shadowy unit that carries out attacks outside of Iran.

However, Argentine Minister of Security Anibal Fernandez said that while the Paraguayan official “has his right to say whatever he wants… I’m not going to talk about conjecture.”

“We abide by due process. And according to the official documentation, there is no specific relationship with terrorist organizations, according to all the databases,” Fernandez was cited as saying.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Mahan Air more than a decade ago over its support for the IRGC. Emtrasur line, which is a subsidiary of Conviasa, is also under U.S. sanctions.

Israel’s Channel 13 last week said that the detained Iranians were planning to carry out attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Argentina and was the reason for their trip to the South American country.

“The State of Israel is particularly concerned about the activities of the Iranian airlines Mahan Air and Qeshm Fars Air in Latin America,” Israel’s embassy in Buenos Aires said in a statement.

The airline companies were “engaged in arms trafficking and the transfer of persons and equipment operating for the Quds Force, under sanctions from the United States for being involved in terrorist activities.”

The Israeli embassy statement expressed “recognition for the rapid, effective and firm action of the Argentine security forces that identified in real-time the potential threat” posed by the aircraft.

The U.S.’ envoy in Buenos Aires thanked Argentine authorities.

“We are following with great interest the judicial and law enforcement investigations into the crew and the plane,”Ambassador Marc Stanley said.

Iran has vowed to avenge the killing of an Quds Force officer last month, for which it blamed Israel.

Israel in the past week has urged citizens to leave Turkey immediately, saying Iran was planning multiple attacks there, including abductions and shooting sprees.

Interpol still has outstanding arrest warrants for former Iranian leaders suspected of involvement in the bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires in 1994 that killed 85 people and wounded hundreds more.

A terror attack two years earlier on Israel’s embassy in Argentina saw 29 killed and hundreds more wounded.

The post Paraguay intelligence chief: Iranian on grounded plane in Argentina is Quds Force officer appeared first on World Israel News.

Five Iranian passengers suspected of ties with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had their passports confiscated. 

By World News Israel Staff

Argentina on Sunday grounded an Iranian Boeing 747 cargo plane, Iranian state media said in reports later confirmed by Argentine Security Minister Fernandez Anibal.

The Mahan Air aircraft, leased to a Venezuelan state-owned airline a year ago, was seized by authorities after landing in Buenos Aires from Mexico.

Five Iranian passengers, allegedly with links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had their passports confiscated, according to Iran International, a London-based Iranian opposition outlet.

While Argentina’s government has not confirmed the seizure, an Interior Ministry document obtained by the Reuters news agency said the decision was made after concerns that the airline had lied about its stated reason for entering the country.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Mahan Air more than a decade ago over its support for the IRGC.

Iran and Venezuela, which are both under U.S. sanctions, share close ties. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is currently in Iran, and over the weekend he signed a 20-year cooperation deal between the two countries.

The post Argentina grounds Iranian Mahan Air cargo plane appeared first on World Israel News.

An Asia Times report claims that the pilot of an Iranian jet “made a dangerous move so the F-15’s could not see the underbelly of the jet,” which may have been equipped with spy cameras.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Iranian officials cried foul over the weekend, claiming passengers on a Mahan Air flight were injured in an incident with USAF fighter jets.

The Iranian airline, however, has a dubious record and is banned by several countries for its involvement in terrorism.

American military officials said an F-15 intercepted the Mahan Air flight on Friday from a safe distance, but Iran claimed the pilot had to take emergency action that resulted in several passenger injuries.

Iranian news agencies originally claimed an Israeli jet was involved but later changed their story.

“A closer look at the airline in question suggests a nefarious Iranian purpose,” the Asia Times reported Sunday.

Earlier this year Mahan Air flew supplies to Venezuela and took Venezuelan government gold back to to Tehran.

“Given its past behavior, it is likely that Iranian spies and commandos are also going to Venezuela on Mahan planes,” the Times said.

Despite a 55-mile no-fly zone around the al-Tanf US army base in Syrian that that pilots of Mahan Air flight 1152 would have known about, published radar tracks show the jet clearly flew right over al-Tanf on the flight from Tehran to Beirut.

“So why would the airliner choose to conduct a flyover? The answer is revealed, to a degree, by the strange maneuver of the jet. The pilot did not want the F-15’s to see something. The F-15’s approached the Mahan jet from behind and rapidly overtook it,” the report said.

“The Mahan flight captain, wanting to avoid a “visual inspection” made a dangerous move so the F-15’s could not see the underbelly of the jet,” it continued, adding that the plane may have been equipped with high-resolution spy cameras that would have been on the underside of the aircraft.

Meanwhile, Iranian parliament member Nasser Mousavi Laregani told the Fars news agency the incident represented a “criminal act of the U.S.” that “will not go unanswered.”

In 2011, the U.S. banned Mahan Air and imposed sanctions on it, noting the “infiltration of Iran’s commercial sector to facilitate its support for terrorism.” France, Italy and Germany have also banned Mahan Air, which has been referred to as a “terror airline” and most recently was found to be helping spread coronavirus in the Middle East.

The Iranian aircraft was either not flying in the predetermined corridor for international flights or it deviated from its route, Radio Farda reported, adding that the flight number and the airliner’s name were not registered according to protocols.

Some Iranian Twitter users confirmed that the “Mahan Air flight was in a totally unidentified corridor and refused to respond to incoming radio messages.” Syrian and Jordanian aviation officials also indicated the Iranian aircraft appeared to have gone “astray” before it was intercepted, Radio Farda said.

The post Report: Iranian plane’s ‘strange maneuver’ may have hidden spy cameras appeared first on World Israel News.

US Air Force F-15 was in the area of an Iranian passenger jet, but Iran accused Israel anyway.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Iranian news outlets on Thursday reported several passengers were injured when pilots of an Iranian airliner alleged they had to take evasive action to avoid an Israeli fighter jet in the skies over the Syrian capital city Damascus.

The F-15 turned out to belong to the U.S. Air Force and was a safe distance away.

“Israeli fighter jet flies close to Iranian Mahan airlines passenger plane over Damascus, makes it reduce altitude,” Iran’s state-run Press TV said in a tweet.

The Iranian news agency IRIB also falsely claimed the fighter jet was Israeli, posting an unconfirmed video from a passenger showing passengers apparently injured when the Mahan pilots dove the plane.

The erroneous Iranian reports were quoted by Reuters, with the initial headline on the New York Times website saying, “Israeli fighter jets comes close to Iranian passenger plane.” Reuters and the Iranian news agencies later corrected the stories to say it was an American F-15 fighter jet involved.

A spokesman for the U.S. armed forces Central Command confirmed that an American fighter plane that was already in the vicinity was a kilometer away from the Iranian airliner.

“A U.S. F-15 on a routine air mission in the vicinity of the CJTF-OIR At Tanf garrison in Syria conducted a standard visual inspection of a Mahan Air passenger airliner at a safe distance of approximately 1,000 meters from the airliner this evening,” Capt. Bill Urban said in a statement issued on CENTCOM’s website.

“The visual inspection occurred to ensure the safety of coalition personnel at At Tanf garrison. Once the F-15 pilot identified the aircraft as a Mahan Air passenger plane, the F-15 safely opened distance from the aircraft. The professional intercept was conducted in accordance with international standards,” Urban said.

The At Tanf U.S. military base is located east of Damascus and was initially deployed in 2016 as part of the American-led intervention in the Syrian civil war. Some 200 American soldiers were stationed there, supporting Syrian rebel fighters against Islamic State terrorists and the forces of Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad.

The post Iranian passengers injured in near-collision with US fighter jet, Iran falsely accuses Israel appeared first on World Israel News.

The U.S. sanctioned a Chinese company providing services to Iran’s Mahan Air, which ferried arms to Hezbollah and brought illegal nuclear items to Tehran.

By Ebin Sandler, World Israel News

On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department sanctioned a Chinese firm called Shanghai Saint Logistics Limited (SSLL) for providing support to Mahan Air, an Iranian airline that plays a key role in the Islamic Republic’s terror apparatus.

“China is one of the rapidly dwindling number of countries that welcomes Mahan Air, which ferries weapons and terrorists around the world for the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in an official statement, adding, “Such cooperation has consequences.”

Pompeo identified SLL as “a PRC-based company that provides general sales agent services for the Specially Designated Global Terrorist Iranian airline.”

The U.S. sanctioned Mahan Air in 2011 for providing material support to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Quds Force (IRGC-QF), an organization that was eventually designated a terror group, and delivering weapons and personnel to Hezbollah. The airline was again sanctioned in 2019 under “weapons of mass destruction authority for shipping United Nations-restricted missile and nuclear items to Iran.”

In 2019, Germany and France also banned Mahan Air.

The company’s history of illegal activities includes transporting fighters to Syria to help brutal dictator Bashar Assad quash anti-regime forces, “contribut[ing] to mass atrocities and displacement of civilians,” according to a U.S. Treasury Department report.

At the beginning of May, Mahan Air was outed in a BBC investigation for spreading the coronavirus in the Middle East. Specifically, Mahan Air continued flights from Iran after bans were imposed in February, flying to China on numerous occasions.

“Our investigation can reveal that 157 flights were made after February 5, and Iran must have given Mahan Air permission to breach its own flight ban with China,” the BBC reported.

Mahan Air also flew to Syria, Iraq and Lebanon during this time frame as well.

In his statement Tuesday, Pompeo noted that “the Iranian regime turned to Mahan Air to facilitate shipments to Venezuela to support the illegitimate former Maduro regime and its desperate attempts to boost energy production, which had fallen due to its own gross mismanagement.”

Pompeo added that Mahan Air “appears to be carrying gold from Venezuela’s vaults back to Iran, depriving the Venezuelan people of resources needed to rebuild their economy.”

Referring to both Iran and Venezuela, Pompeo commented that “authoritarian regimes are more interested in their own survival than the needs of their people.”

Pompeo concluded, “The United States is pleased that over the last two years, governments and companies across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia have wisely severed ties with Mahan Air. This designation serves as another reminder that companies still providing services for Mahan Air – in the PRC or anywhere else – risk potential U.S. sanctions.

The post US cracks down on Chinese firm working with Iranian terror airline appeared first on World Israel News.

The French move follows Germany’s banning of Mahan Air over security concerns and amid U.S. pressure to sanction the airline.

By World Israel News Staff

France has banned flights in and out of the country by Iran’s Mahan Air, accusing it of transporting military equipment and personnel to Syria and other Middle East war zones, Reuters reported, citing diplomats on Monday who said that the move followed heavy U.S. pressure on Paris to act.

The decision to revoke Mahan’s license to operate in France was made after Germany banned the airline in January .

After consultations with European allies and the U.S., Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters, “It cannot be ruled out that this airline carries out transports to Germany that affect our security concerns.”

Mahan Air is on a U.S. sanctions list, and Washington has long urged allies to ban the airline from their territories. The U.S. imposed sanctions on the airline in 2011, saying it provided financial and other support to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), and Washington has been pressing its European allies to follow suit.

The airline had several weekly flights between Tehran and German cities and four flights a week to Paris from Tehran.

Paris had considered revoking its license more than two years ago under the presidency of Francois Hollande but backed down because it feared it could harm relations just after a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers was reached in 2015, says Reuters.

Tensions between Paris and Tehran have grown in recent months as President Emmanuel Macron and his government have become increasingly frustrated with Iran’s ballistic missile tests, regional activities, and a foiled attack on an Iranian exile group in France, which Paris says Iranian intelligence was behind, the news agency reported.

Germany is seen as playing a large role in trying to salvage the nuclear deal with Tehran after U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to unilaterally pull out last year.

Associated Press contributed to this report.

The post France bans Iranian airline flights appeared first on World Israel News.