Iran Rejects Israel's Accusation of Arms Transfer via Passenger Plane

Iran has rejected the accusation of transferring weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon using passenger planes, labeling an Israeli diplomat's letter to the United Nations Security Council as 'demagoguery and hypocrisy.' Gholamhossein Dehghani, Iran's deputy permanent representative to the UN, wrote in a letter to the UN Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council on Wednesday, December 3, that the 'claims' made by the Israeli representative are 'absurd and completely false' and that 'as always, no evidence has been provided to substantiate them.' He stated, 'The issuance of blanket accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding violations of multiple Security Council resolutions by a regime that shamelessly mocks all General Assembly and Security Council resolutions condemning its occupation over the past decades is a ridiculous story.' Just a day prior, Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, sent a letter to the Security Council accusing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps of using Mahan Airlines to transfer weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, which, if proven, would mean a violation of Security Council resolutions. According to this Israeli diplomat, 'the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard embeds weapons and equipment in luggage to transport them via passenger planes to Beirut or Damascus.' However, the Iranian deputy representative at the UN stated that Israel 'is not in a position to make such claims against other nations' and that it is 'very ridiculous and hypocritical for a representative of a regime that has occupied the lands of others for decades and denies even the minimum human rights to Palestinians to occasionally accuse Iran of violating international law.' Mahan Airlines was placed on the US sanctions list five years ago for allegedly providing services to the Quds Force and transferring personnel and weapons to Lebanon and Syria. Despite Iran and world powers reaching a nuclear agreement, this airline remains under sanctions.