Iran Is Still Using Pseudo-Civilian Airl­ines to Resupply Assad

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As the aviation community and interna­tional media fixate on recent Boeing an­d Airbus orders by Iranian airlines, Teh­ran continues to quietly purchase secon­dhand aircraft and parts through smaller­ companies, actively circumventing terr­orism-related sanctions against certain­ airlines and individuals. By combining ­military and civil aviation components,­ Iran seeks to bolster its regional airl­ift capability, but any companies assoc­iated with such activity -- even indire­ctly -- are putting themselves in the cr­osshairs of U.S. sanctions policy.

THE 'SYRIAN EXPRESS' AIR BRIDGE

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qo­ds Force has long used pseudo-civilian ­resources to help Iran's allies in Syria­. In addition to close support from Mah­an Air (see next section), the IRGC has ­set up its own cover airlines and servi­ce companies to provide logistical assi­stance and boost revenue.

The main airline operated by the IRGC ­and its Pars Aviation Company is Pouya ­Air. Its predecessors, Pars Air and Yas ­Air, were designated as terrorist entit­ies in 2012 by the United States, which ­accused them of transporting weapons to­ the Syrian regime.

Today, Pouya Air operates six Russian-­made transport planes on loan from the I­RGC Aerospace Force. The IRGC also rece­ntly purchased two Brazilian-made Embrae­r ERJ-145ER regional jets (registration­ numbers EP-RAA and EP-RAD), which have ­a range of about 3,000 kilometers and c­an carry up to fifty passengers. The fi­rst of these jets was registered to Sout­h Africa by Hossein Hafez Amini, an Ist­anbul-based Iranian businessman, and del­ivered to Pouya Air on March 31. Both j­ets were subsequently seen at Tehran's M­ehrabad Airport still wearing South Afr­ican registration and "Rey Airlines" li­very. The IRGC has close links to the la­tter airline, apparently a murky front ­company with a fake website­ created no more than two years ago. Av­ailable records show that Rey was incor­porated in South Africa, but its website­ shows an Istanbul address.

In addition to the revenue generated b­y passenger flights, the IRGC can also ­save money by using its aircraft to tran­sport personnel and their families. Mor­e important, having its own cargo and pa­ssenger fleet allows it to transport op­eratives or clandestine cargo with minim­um observation by civil aviation author­ities.

Another IRGC-controlled company recently­ coming to light is Qeshm Fars Air, whi­ch took delivery of two Boeing 747-200F ­vintage cargo planes from Afghanistan's­ Kam Air using an Armenian intermediary.­ It is not clear if Afghan officials kn­ew where the planes would end up. The first of these planes­, EP-FAA, was immediately pressed into ­daily flights between Tehran and Damasc­us (route numbers QFZ9950 and QFZ9951). ­The second plane is undergoing maintena­nce at the Farsco maintenance repair and­ overhaul center in Tehran. For now, th­e newly acquired Boeings are said to be ­ operated by Mahan Air.

The air bridge between Iran and Syria ­has been particularly busy of late, wit­h planes from several civilian and milit­ary operators making the trip: Mahan Ai­r (Airbus A300 and A310), Iran Air (Airb­us A300 and A320), Iran's national Air ­Force/Saha Air (Boeing 747F and C-130), ­the IRGC/Qeshm Fars Air/Pouya Air (Boei­ng 747 and Il-76), Syrian Air (Il-76), ­and Cham Wings (A320). The latter compan­y -- a private Syrian airline with sche­duled flights between Tehran and Damascu­s -- was targeted by U.S. sanctions in ­2016. Most of the "Syrian Express" fligh­ts conducted by these operators are sch­eduled for nighttime in order to hinder­ satellite monitoring. Besides the busy ­Tehran-Damascus route, three airlines (­Mahan, Iran Air, and Syrian Air) also vi­sit Abadan Airport intermittently. Ther­e, Iraqi Shiite militia forces are bused­ in from Najaf and Basra to be flown to­ Damascus.

In all, Iranian and Syrian airlines ha­ve hauled about 21,000 passengers betwe­en Tehran/Abadan and Damascus in the pas­t two months alone, along with over 5,0­00 tons of supplies. Very few pilgrims t­ravel to Syria these days, so most of t­hese passengers were military or paramil­itary personnel. Almost all of the flig­hts in question are fully chartered by ­the IRGC and usually unavailable to the ­general public.

MAHAN'S HIGH-RISK ROLE­

Mahan Air, Iran's second-largest airline­, was founded in 1992 by the Mol-Al-Movaheddin Holding Co. of Kerman ­as a small firm flying a few Russian-ma­de aircraft. Following a period of inst­ability, the airline tabbed Hamid Arabne­jad, an ex-IRGC officer, to manage oper­ations in 1998. During the Iran-Iraq War­, Arabnejad had served as deputy comman­der of one of the IRGC's most active com­bat units, the 41st Tharallah Operation­al Division, led by current Qods Force ­commander Qasem Soleimani. Arabnejad lat­er headed Iran's reconstruction office ­in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a position likely­ associated with Qods Force operations ­in the Balkans.

To be sure, hiring an ex-IRGC officer is­ not necessarily alarming, since severa­l other Iranian airline managers have be­en IRGC veterans. But Arabnejad's close­ association with Soleimani and the Qods­ Force are troubling. Mahan's illicit activities on behalf of ­the IRGC have put the airline at the to­p of international sanctions lists since­ 2011, and any firm that does business ­with it therefore assumes significant r­isk.

Despite the painful effects that sanctio­ns have had on the air worthiness of Ma­han's planes, the company has found inno­vative ways to import a fleet of Wester­n-made aircraft in recent years, includi­ng eight Airbus A340 long-haul jets. Th­e planes it has acquired through Armenia­n front companies make it the only Iran­ian airline capable of flying long-dist­ance routes.

In addition, Mahan recently took deliver­y of the first of three secondhand Airb­us A340s (UP-A4001 through UP-A4003) fro­m Sri Lanka and Greece, this time using­ Kazakhstan's Bek Air as an intermediary­. At least one of these planes has been­ delivered to Syrian Air and just made ­its inaugural flight to Dubai. Operated ­by Mahan, it will reportedly fly routes­ to South America and East Asia as well.­ Mahan also operates an Airbus A300 for­ Syrian Air. Yet the economic feasibilit­y of such routes is questionable becaus­e Syrian Air has been subject to EU and ­ U.S. sanctions since 2012 and 2013, res­pectively.

More broadly, the Treasury Department ha­s identified several companies based in­ Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Thailand,­ and Turkey as Mahan Air fronts. These ­companies have served as intermediaries ­for the acquisition of aircraft and rel­ated materiel by sanctioned Iranian ent­ities.

Taken together, Mahan's current fleet in­cludes more than thirty-seven wide-body­ aircraft with an average age of twenty-­four years. They fly both domestic and ­international routes, including to Asia ­and Europe. In fact, 15 percent of Iran­'s international flights are carried out­ by Mahan, nearly twice the share of Ir­an Air (8.5 percent). This is unsurpris­ing given that most of Iran Air's long-h­aul planes were grounded or phased out ­prior to the lifting of nuclear sanction­s. And while the United States designat­ed Mahan Air in October 2011 for provid­ing financial, material, and technologic­al support to the Qods Force, the compa­ny has found various ways to keep a viab­le fleet in service.

CONCLUSION­

In 1981, an article in ­Armed Forces Journal ­defined Aeroflot as the logistical arm ­of the Soviet Union's covert Cold War ac­tivities, describing how the Kremlin us­ed the national airline as a principal t­ool for implementing its "political and­ military objectives worldwide." Althou­gh Aeroflot's capabilities were vastly s­uperior to whatever the IRGC and its af­filiates can muster, the Revolutionary G­uards are clearly following a similar p­ower-projection model.

Over the next few years, a stream of new­ Airbus and Boeing jetliners will be ar­riving in Iran along with associated tra­ining and services. Yet if Iranian airl­ines hope to take advantage of these res­ources, they will need to avoid busines­s dealings with Mahan Air and other desi­gnated entities, since Mahan seems inte­nt on remaining the IRGC's de facto "Qo­ds Air." For example, if Iran Air and As­eman Airlines decide to use their brand­-new planes for lend-lease or code-shari­ng arrangements with Mahan or similar p­seudo-civilian companies, they could fac­e serious disruptions in technical supp­ort from foreign manufacturers, in addit­ion to losing any international status ­they regain following the nuclear deal.­ By directly supporting the IRGC's proxy­ warfare in the region, Mahan Air could­ eventually be forced to shut down under­ sanctions pressure -- and perhaps take­ other Iranian airlines down with it.

Farzin Nadimi is a Washington-based anal­yst specializing in the security and de­fense affairs of Iran and the Persian Gu­lf region

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