BIS Adds First Iranian-Owned Planes to Restricted Aircraft List

The Bureau of Industry and Security this week updated its restricted aircraft list by adding three Iranian-owned and operated planes for violating U.S. export controls after they provided flight services to Russia. The planes -- owned by Mahan Air, Qeshm Fars Air and Iran Air -- are the first Iranian aircraft added to the list and are now subject to certain maintenance and repair restrictions and other prohibitions outlined in General Prohibition 10 of the Export Administration Regulations.

BIS said it identified the planes using “commercially available data” and determined they were illegally flying and transporting goods, including “electronic items,” to Russia. The agency said it’s closely monitoring whether foreign airlines are helping Russia evade U.S. export controls, including by providing it the “parts and inputs it needs to sustain its military aggression against Ukraine.”

BIS said it has seen a “significant increase” in Iranian cargo flights to Russia since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February, adding Iran has publicly said it plans to expand cooperation with Russia’s aviation sector by sending it spare parts for its airplanes. “When Russia seeks to engage pariah states like Iran in order to backfill for what the international community has cut off, we will take action to thwart such attempts and disrupt such connections,” Matthew Axelrod, BIS’s top export enforcement official, said in a statement.

The agency also noted the three Iranian airlines are already subject to a range of U.S. restrictions. Mahan Air has been on BIS’s Denied Persons List since 2008 and is subject to a temporary denial order (see 2205160035), while the Treasury Department sanctions Qeshm Fars Air in 2008. Iran Air was added to the Entity List in 2020 (see 2003130029).

BIS said its restricted aircraft list now includes 183 planes. The agency has added a variety of aircraft to the list since the February invasion, including the first foreign-produced planes in August (see 2208020018).