BEHIND THE IRAN HEADLINES Series, April 10, 2024, Alireza Jafarzadeh, NCRI-US Deputy Director
Last week, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) revealed the extent of control the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has over Iran Air, the national airline.
The NCRI uncovered evidence that Iran Air has long been used by the Iranian regime to transfer money, weapons, and equipment to its proxies, including Hezbollah and the Houthis, as well as facilitating terrorism.
According to a report in The Telegraph, Brigadier Shamseddin Farzadipour, a senior IRGC commander, has been secretly running Iran Air since April 2022. His background as the former aviation commander for the IRGC’s Aerospace Force highlights the close ties between Iran Air and the IRGC. Farzadipour, known for flying transport planes, including Soviet-era Ilyushin-76 aircraft between Iran and Syria, facilitated the delivery of supplies to the Quds Force, which supports Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Die Welt, a German publication, reported on Iran Air’s role in facilitating terrorism. The airline has been used to plan and execute terrorist operations in Europe, including the thwarted bomb attack on the NCRI’s annual rally in Paris in 2018. Additionally, evidence points to Iran Air’s involvement in the 1990 assassination of NCRI’s representative in Switzerland, Professor Kazem Rajavi, in Geneva. This revelation, amidst growing concerns over the regime’s involvement in proliferating missiles and military equipment to its proxies in the Middle East and Russia, underscores the urgent need for decisive actions, including EU and UN Security Council sanctions