Germany Bans Iranian Airline under US Pressure
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Germany has revoked the license of an Iranian airline, the foreign ministry said on Monday, after heavy US pressure on Berlin.
The German ban on the airline takes immediate effect, a foreign ministry spokesman said.
Contacted by Reuters, Mahan Air in Tehran said it could not comment immediately on the ban.
The measure does not signal plans for the reimposition of broader sanctions against Iran, a German government source said.
Mahan Air, established in 1992 as Iran’s first private airline, has the country’s largest fleet of aircraft and has flights to a number of European countries, including France, Italy, Spain and Greece.
German government spokesman Steffen Seibert denied that the decision to ban Mahan air was the result of US pressure.
The United States imposed sanctions on Mahan Air in 2011.
“The German decision is based on considerations of our security needs,” he told a regular news conference.
European countries have been under sustained US pressure to reimpose sanctions on Iran since President Donald Trump last year pulled Washington out of an international treaty it had reached with Tehran under his predecessor Barack Obama.
Along with Iran, the other signatories to the deal - Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China - are trying to keep it alive.
The European countries, with more extensive economic ties to Iran, have sought to shield themselves from the impact of Washington’s extra-territorial sanctions.
