The US has imposed new sanctions against a number of aircraft providing goods and services to four Iranian airlines including the operator of Iranian Presidential Aircraft.
The sanctions announced by the US Treasury Department on Thursday, targeted the entities cooperating with Iran’s Mahan Air, Caspian Air, Meraj Air, Pouya Air and Dena Air, which operates the airplane Iranian President Rouhani uses for his official travels.
According to Bourseandbazaar, an Iranian business news site, Dena Airways is the company which operates EP-DAA, an Airbus A340. Until November 2017, the aircraft was registered to Meraj Airways, an entity that was previously sanctioned as part of the Specially Designated Nationals list, known as the SDN list.
In Early February, German fuel companies refused to refuel Iranian foreign minister’s plane out of fear they would violate US sanctions against Iran.
The incident almost prevented Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif from attending the Munich Security Conference.
The US also imposed sanctions against nine Iranian and Turkish individuals and companies after President Trump withdraw from the nuclear deal between Iran and five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. Under the deal, US was obligated to avoid imposing new sanctions against Iran.
