Washington Extends Sanctions on Iranian Airline

The United States extended sanctions against Iranian airline "Mahan Air" and some of its former partners on Friday. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard owns "Mahan Air," which has been used for many years to transport weapons and armed elements to Syria and Iraq. The Persian version of the Russian news agency "Sputnik" reported that "the U.S. Department of Commerce has extended the sanctions imposed on Mahan Air and 12 other companies for six months." These sanctions include a ban on selling any American aviation equipment to these companies, according to the same source. The agency continued: "The United States has once again expanded the restrictive measures previously imposed on Iranian Mahan Airlines and a number of former partner companies in several countries." The extension of the sanctions was announced in a statement from the U.S. Department of Commerce published on Friday, in what is known as the federal registry; a collection of official documents from the U.S. government, according to the same source. The U.S. statement read: "This order 'to extend sanctions' will take effect immediately and remain in force for 180 days." Iran has approximately 250 aircraft, some of which are outdated and have not been updated since 1979; this has increased aviation incidents, particularly within the country. U.S. sanctions also include preventing the supply of spare parts to Iran for maintaining its old aircraft that have been out of service for a long time. Since Washington's withdrawal from the nuclear agreement in May 2018, strong sanctions targeting various economic sectors in Iran have been imposed.