One of the men on board a plane that landed near Buenos Aires is a member of Iran’s Quds Force, Paraguay’s intelligence chief said on Friday, despite claims by Argentina that there was no evidence linking the case with the elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps get in touch.
Intelligence chief Esteban Aquino told AFP that Captain Gholamreza Ghasemi not only shared a name with a member of the force — an expeditionary arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps that carries out kidnappings and assassinations outside Iran — but is actually the same man.
Argentina’s Security Minister Anibal Fernandez responded on Friday that while the Paraguayan official has “the right to say whatever he wants… I’m not going to talk about conjecture.”
“We are following due process. And according to official documentation, according to all databases, there is no specific relationship with terrorist organizations,” Fernandez told radio AM750.
The Boeing 747 cargo plane reportedly carrying car parts loaded in Mexico has been held at an Argentine airport since Wednesday last week, its crew of 14 Venezuelans and five Iranians being prevented from leaving the country pending investigations.
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Argentine authorities confiscated the passports of crew members on the plane, which is operated by Venezuela’s state-owned Emtrasur line, a Conviasa subsidiary under US sanctions.
A Venezuelan-owned Boeing 747 taxis on the runway after landing at Ambrosio Taravella Airport in Cordoba, Argentina, Monday, June 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Sebastian Borsero)
Iran said the plane was sold by Iran’s Mahan Air to a Venezuelan company last year. Mahan Air has been accused by the United States of having links with the Revolutionary Guards.
On Monday, Argentine officials voiced suspicions of a link between the flight and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and their elite Kuds force.
Law enforcement officials searched the hotel where the crew members were staying Tuesday on orders from federal judge Federico Villena, who is investigating the crew. Argentine authorities say they have found no irregularities in the crew.
On Wednesday, Israeli Channel 13 said in an unsourced report that the arrested Iranians were planning attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Argentina and had traveled to the South American nation to scout targets. According to the report, they were members of the Quds Force.
Iran has vowed to avenge the killing of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard officer last month, blaming Israel for the killing.
Jerusalem has in recent days urged citizens to leave Turkey immediately and said it got wind of intelligence agencies citing Iranian attempts to attack and kidnap Israeli tourists there.
In this September 22, 2014 file photo, members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards march during an annual military parade at the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini outside Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, file)
The Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires said Thursday it was “concerned” about the activities of two Iranian airlines in Latin America and welcomed Argentina’s grounding of the plane.
“The State of Israel is particularly concerned about the activities of Iranian airlines Mahan Air and Qeshm Fars Air in Latin America,” the embassy statement said.
It added that the companies were “involved in arms trafficking and the transfer of people and equipment working for the Quds Force under United States sanctions for involvement in terrorist activities.”
The Israeli embassy statement expressed “appreciation for the swift, effective and decisive action taken by the Argentine security forces, which identified in real time the potential threat” posed by the plane.
The top US diplomat in Argentina also commented on the case.
“We are following with keen interest the judicial and law enforcement investigations into the crew and aircraft and thank the investigative efforts of the Argentine authorities to clarify the situation,” US Ambassador Marc Stanley said in a statement shared with local media.
Police officers at the Plaza Central Hotel during a judicial raid on the crew of a Venezuelan Boeing 747 cargo plane in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, June 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Adding international resonance to the case, Venezuela on Thursday night slammed Uruguay for not allowing the plane to land in Montevideo to refuel.
Uruguay’s Interior Minister Luis Alberto Heber said the country had responded to a “formal warning from Paraguayan intelligence”.
According to a report by Argentina’s Transport Ministry, the plane’s crew wanted to fly to Montevideo on June 8 but were forced to return to Buenos Aires after Uruguayan authorities refused entry into its airspace. At the time, the plane was grounded by Argentine authorities.
Uruguay’s “regrettable actions” could have caused “tragedy, lives and damage to both nations,” Venezuela said in a statement, adding that it “requires explanations from the Uruguayan government about this horrific event.”
Interpol has issued arrest warrants for former Iranian leaders suspected of involvement in the 1994 suicide bombing of the main building of the Jewish community in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 and injured hundreds.
In this July 18, 1994 file photo, firefighters and rescue workers search the rubble of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association community center after a car bomb rocked the building in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina. (AP Photo/Alejandro Pagni, file)
Two years earlier, a bomb attack on the Israeli embassy in Argentina killed 29 and wounded 200.
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