Argentina has suffered two terrorist attacks in the 1990s -on the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) and the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires- and the local Justice has pointed out powerful people from Iran and the Hezbollah group as responsible.
The Argentine Justice ordered this Wednesday the seizure of the Venezuelan-Iranian plane held at the international airport of Buenos Aires.
This occurs within the framework of an investigation for possible links with international terrorism, judicial sources confirmed to Efe.
According to these sources, the Justice decided to seize the aircraft in order to obtain more information regarding what the flight crew was doing in Buenos Aires.
This was made up of five Iranians and 14 Venezuelans, whose passports were also previously withheld.
The exact time of seizure of the plane is still unknown and the cause remains a summary secret, these sources concluded.
The plane in question, a Boeing 747 Dreamliner cargo plane, was owned by the Iranian company Mahan Air and currently belongs to Emtrasur.
It is a subsidiary of the Venezuelan Consortium of Aeronautical Industries and Air Services (Conviasa), companies that are sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury.
The aircraft entered Argentina on June 6 with cargo from Mexico, following a stopover in Venezuela, bound for the Ezeiza international airport.
On Wednesday he took off to go to Uruguay to refuel, but landed once more at the Argentine airport because the neighboring country did not allow his landing.
Seizure of Venezuelan-Iranian plane in Argentina
In Argentina, the oil companies do not load fuel to the plane for fear of US sanctions.
Since this week, the Argentine Justice has carried out an investigation to elucidate the possible links of the crew with international terrorism.
The foregoing, since one of its members, the Iranian Gholamreza Gashemi, has the same name as a member of the Quds Forces.
It is a division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, defined by the United States as a terrorist organization.
The Argentine Security Minister, Aníbal Fernández, stated this Wednesday that the country’s authorities followed “all the steps” regarding the plane, complying with all the established protocols.
Likewise, the chief of staff, Juan Manzur, maintained that all the areas involved in this case “already explained in great detail” what happened and pointed out that the issue “is in the hands of Justice.”
