United States Sanctioning Iran’s Mahan Air Network and IRGC-Linked Front Company

The United States today sanctioned six entities and individuals in China, India, Russia, and Iran that enable the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). These include entities that support Mahan Air, the IRGC’s airline of choice for moving weapons, military personnel, and equipment. Today’s action also targets DadeNegar Startup Studio, an IRGC-affiliated front company supporting Iranian military targeting by soliciting locations of American and Israeli equipment in the Middle East.

The United States calls on the international community, particularly companies and individuals doing business with Mahan Air or any other sanctioned Iranian carrier, to recognize the serious risks raised by continuing such engagement.

The United States will continue to expose and disrupt entities providing the IRGC with the tools and information it uses to threaten American personnel, our partners, and regional stability.

 OFAC is taking this action pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended, which targets terrorist groups, their supporters, and those who aid acts of terrorism, and in furtherance of the President’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2), which directs the U.S. government to deny the IRGC access to assets and resources that sustain its destabilizing activities. On October 12, 2011, OFAC designated Mahan Air pursuant to E.O. 13224 for providing financial, material, and technological support to Iran’s IRGC-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), which OFAC designated pursuant to E.O. 13224 in October 2007 for providing material support to multiple terrorist organizations. The U.S. Department of State designated the IRGC itself pursuant to the counterproliferation authority E.O. 13382 in 2007, and OFAC designated the IRGC pursuant to E.O. 13224 in October 2017 for providing support to the IRGC-QF. For more information on today’s action, please see Treasury’s press releases.