Iran Aviation Agency Refutes Claims Alleging Berlin Plans to Ban Mahan Air

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The spokesman for Iran's Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) on Sunday dismissed media reports alleging that Berlin intended to ban the country’s Mahan Air airline from using German airports in 2019.

"Iran's Civil Aviation Organization has not received any report from the German officials on sanctions against Mahan Air and the German government's spokesman has said about the claim by Bild that he could not comment," Reza Jafarzadeh told the Fars News Agency.

Jafarzadeh added that Mahan Air had been conducting flights to Germany for nearly 15 years, and had a six-month contract for winter flights with the country.

The airline carries out six flights between Tehran and Germany per week: four flights from Duesseldorf and two more from Munich.

Mahan Air was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in October 2011. According to the US Treasury, the airline routinely transports fighters and equipment to Syria in order to support the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

READ MORE: US Sanctions Iranian Mahan Air’s Sales Agent in Malaysia

On Friday, the Bild newspaper reported that the German government was going to ban the airline from using national airports starting from January 2019. The decision was reportedly made after intensive discussions and followed the US intelligence services’ claims that German cooperation with Mahan Air would threaten the security of US citizens in German airports.