A Venezuelan Boeing 747-300 cargo plane landed at Buenos Aires International Airport on July 8. On board were 14 cabin crew from Venezuela and five from Iran. It was loaded with car parts from Volkswagen. But then ground crew refused to refuel the plane, which is sanctioned by the United States. The plane then tried to refuel in neighboring Uruguay, but was rejected due to the same sanctions. Back at the Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires, the plane was arrested. The Venezuelan Boeing 747-300 flew past Argentina’s second largest city, Cordoba, on June 6 before landing in Buenos Aires. Photo: SEBASTIAN BORSERO / AFP During a routine check, discrepancies were found, Argentina’s Minister of Security Anibal Fernandez told Radio Perfil. There were fewer passengers on board than what was stated on the passenger lists. The Iranian staff have been deprived of their passports and are now staying in a hotel outside the capital. They are not allowed to leave the country. Journalists are waiting outside the hotel for flight attendants outside the capital, Buenos Aires. The Iranian people have been deprived of their passports and cannot leave the country. Photo: LUIS ROBAYO / AFP Fears Iran’s Revolutionary Guards According to a report by the FBI handed over to the Argentine authorities, the plane’s pilot, Gholamreza Ghasemi, is affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), a special force called the Quds Force and Hezbollah, Infobae reports. The United States has terrorized the Revolutionary Guards. The pilot will also be the chief and board member of Oeshm Fars Air, a company that according to the United States is directly involved in terrorist activity by conducting freight for the Quds force. Oeshm Fars Air flies cargo planes “under the civilian name” for the Quds Force by, for example, “smuggling weapons and sensitive equipment from Iran to Syria”. This prompted the Argentine public prosecutor to order an investigation into the pilot’s possible terrorist links. Despite the fact that Argentine intelligence and police are investigating the suspicious plane, Argentine President Alberto Fernández stated that there was nothing irregular about the plane. The pilot is just an innocent namesake, he said. Argentine President Alberto Fernández has commented on the flight case, even though it is under ongoing investigation. He believes there is nothing suspicious about the plane. Photo: Natacha Pisarenko / AP – It is not a namesake, said intelligence chief Esteban Aquino in neighboring Paraguay. Also in Paraguay, the plane is being investigated after the former intermediary in the country carried cigarettes. – He belongs to the Quds force, there is no doubt about that, he thinks. Iran: Propaganda The federal Argentine judge Federico Villena has put together a working group with the various security agencies in the country and the FBI. The police have secured mobile phones and other documents from the staff. Iranian authorities, for their part, have stated that the incident is part of a propaganda campaign against Iran, based on Western countries’ desire to restore the nuclear agreement from 2015. – A “terrorist plane” The plane was sold to Venezuela in January by the Iranian airline Mahan Air. Former United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has previously called the company a “terrorist plane”. In 2020, Pompeo asked the countries of the world to deny the airline stopovers after Mahan Air carried “unknown support” to the government of Venezuela. The United States had imposed a number of sanctions on both Iran and Venezuela. “This is the same terrorist aircraft that Iran has used to move weapons and troops around the Middle East,” Foreign Minister Pompeo claimed. These Boeing 747-300 aircraft were produced between 1983 and 1990. Only 81 pieces have been produced.
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Mysterious plane arrested at Argentine airport – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
