Germany Sanctions Iran Regime Airliner Over Spying Charges

Staff Writer

The German government has prepared sanctions against Iranian airline Mahan Air in response to Iran’s malign activities in Europe, including the recent discovery of an Iranian spy posing as a translator for the country’s military, according to German media reports on Monday. Public broadcasters WDR, NDR and the Süddeutsche Zeitung daily have reported that Germany’s Federal Aviation Office is expected to withdraw Mahan Air’s German operating permit by next week. The US has accused Mahan Air of being closely linked to Iran’s elite Al Quds force, a militant wing of the brutal Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In 2011, the US sanctioned Mahan Air after designating it a material supporter of terrorism for its ties to the Quds, who are listed as a terrorist entity by the US.

Europe gets tough on Iran

Earlier this month, the EU issued sanctions against the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and two of its high-ranking members for its attempted terrorist attacks and assassination against Iranian opposition groups and leaders in France, Denmark, the Netherlands and other EU countries. In March 2018, Iran tried to bomb the Persian New Year gathering held by Iranian Resistance members in Albania, where 3,000 Iranian Resistance members have lived since 2016, entering as refugees fleeing attacks by the Iranian Regime. In June, Iranian agents tried to bomb the annual National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) rally, which was attended by over 100,000 people, including hundreds of diplomats and dignitaries. Germany arrested Iran’s diplomat to Vienna for his role in the attempted attack, after the Iranian-Belgian couple arrested at the French border named him as the man who supplied them with the bomb. While Denmark in October named Iran as the country behind an assassination attempt on an Iranian dissident there. Things finally came to a head in January, when the Netherlands said that Iran had been behind two assassinations of dissidents on Dutch soil in 2015 and 2017. Then the EU announced sanctions against the Iranian Regime. This only serves to prove what the Iranian Resistance has been saying all along. the Iranian Regime poses a real and serious threat to the safety and security of other countries, whether through their missile programme, their support for terrorism, or their human rights abuses. The Iranian Regime has not changed their behaviour in the past 40 years and cannot be expected to now, therefore Europe should abandon the appeasement policy and support regime change by and for the people of Iran.