US Sanctions Against Several Entities Linked to the Quds Force and Mahan Airlines

The US Treasury Department published a report on its official website on Thursday, January 24, sanctioning four organizations and companies due to their connections with the Quds Force or Mahan Airlines. Recently, Germany also revoked Mahan Airlines' license to operate in the country. A senior German official told Reuters that this action was taken "both due to security issues" and "due to doubts about the use of this Iranian airline for military purposes." The new US sanctions list includes the Fatemiyoun Brigade, a travel company in Armenia, Qeshm Air, and the Zainabiyoun Brigade. Regarding the sanctions against the Armenian company 'Flight Travel,' it is reported that this company was sanctioned for collaborating with Mahan Air. Qeshm Air has also been sanctioned for its cooperation with Mahan and the IRGC. The Islamic Republic of Iran has sent its military forces, known as the 'Defenders of the Shrine,' to Syria and Iraq to fight against the opponents of Bashar al-Assad and the Islamic State (ISIS), and has dispatched a significant number of Afghan and Pakistani Shia fighters under the banners of the Fatemiyoun Brigade and the Zainabiyoun Brigade to Syria. In July of this year, the US published a report on 'human trafficking' in Iran. This report, dated June 2018, states that the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have forced Afghan migrant children and men to fight in Syria by threatening to arrest and return them to Afghanistan. The US State Department's report adds that some of these recruited forces are teenage boys, even as young as 12-13 years old, sent by Iranian officials to fight on behalf of Iran-backed militias in Syria. In the new US Treasury report, the Fatemiyoun and Zainabiyoun have been sanctioned for their cooperation with the IRGC. This report also sanctions two Boeing 747 aircraft manufactured in 1990 and 1991 belonging to Qeshm Air. Despite US opposition to the deployment of Pakistani and Afghan nationals by the IRGC to Syria, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the special assistant to the Speaker of Parliament for international affairs, announced on July 8 that Iranian 'military advisors' would continue their presence in Syria. Reports indicate that more than two thousand individuals labeled as 'Defenders of the Shrine' have been killed.