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Argentine President Alberto Fernandez insisted Saturday {that a} Venezuelan cargo airplane caught since early this month at an airport close to Buenos Aires had been grounded solely as a consequence of fueling difficulties, not due to any alleged hyperlink to Iran’s elite Quds Drive.
There may be “no irregularity” with the airplane, Fernandez advised Radio 10, including that the only real drawback was refueling difficulties linked to US sanctions on Venezuela.
Paraguay stated final week that seven crew members of the airplane, which stopped in that nation in Might, have been Quds Drive members. On Friday, Paraguayan intelligence chief Esteban Aquino named the airplane’s captain Gholamreza Ghasemi as a kind of males.
The airplane was carrying 14 Venezuelan and 5 Iranian crew members.
However Fernandez blamed his political opponents for spreading the Quds Drive accusation, saying they wished to indicate “one thing that’s not — one thing darkish” by suggesting a hyperlink to terrorism.
The Boeing 747 cargo airplane is reportedly carrying automobile elements. Its crew members have been prevented from leaving Argentina pending an investigation.
The airplane arrived in Argentina from Mexico on June 6, then tried to fly to Uruguay two days later, the place it was refused entry.
Uruguay’s Inside Minister Luis Alberto Heber stated his nation had obtained a “formal warning from Paraguayan intelligence.”
Increasing the worldwide reverberations within the case, Venezuela on Thursday night harshly criticized Uruguay for failing to permit the airplane to land in Montevideo to refuel.
Uruguay’s “regrettable motion” might have “brought on a tragedy, human lives and injury to each nations,” Venezuela stated in a press release, including that it “calls for explanations about this horrible occasion from the Uruguayan authorities.”
The airplane then returned to Argentina the place it has been grounded ever since.
The airplane belongs to Emtrasur, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s Conviasa, which is underneath US sanctions. Conviasa bought the airplane from Tehran’s Mahan Air final yr, Iranian officers stated.
The USA has accused Mahan Air of hyperlinks to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Israel has in the meantime hailed Argentina’s grounding of the airplane, expressing concern over Iran’s exercise in Latin America as Tehran continues its efforts to hurt Israelis overseas, in accordance with Israeli intelligence.
“The State of Israel is especially involved in regards to the actions of the Iranian airways Mahan Air and Qeshm Fars Air in Latin America,” the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires stated in a press release.
The highest US diplomat in Argentina additionally commented on the case.
“We’re following with nice curiosity the judicial and legislation enforcement investigations into the crew and the airplane and thank the investigative efforts of Argentine authorities to clear up the scenario,” US Ambassador Marc Stanley stated in a press release shared with native media.
Interpol nonetheless has lively arrest warrants for former Iranian leaders suspected of involvement within the suicide bombing of the primary Jewish group workplace constructing in Buenos Aires in 1994 that killed 85 individuals and injured tons of.
Extra just lately, Iran vowed to avenge the killing of an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps officer final month, blaming Israel for the assassination.
Jerusalem in current days has known as on residents to go away Turkey instantly, saying it had gotten wind of intelligence that factors to Iranian makes an attempt to assault and kidnap Israeli vacationers there.
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