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Source: http://jcpa.org/the-united-states-seeks-to-cut-air-link-between-iran-and-venezuela/
The U.S. Seeks to Cut Air Link between Iran and Venezuela
(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Lt.-Col. (ret.) Michael Segall - On April 8, 2019, Iranian airline Mahan Air launched direct commercial flights between Tehran and the Venezuelan capital, Caracas. Since October 2011, the Iranian company has been subject to U.S. sanctions for its deep involvement in ferrying military and logistical aid to the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. This year, Germany and France barred the airline from their territory. Iran is using its ties with Venezuela to expand its activity and influence in Latin America (among other things, by means of Hizbullah) and to entrench its military, intelligence, narcoterrorist, diplomatic, economic, and religious presence and influence in the region. Iran's activity in America's "backyard" is intended to pose a challenge to Washington's intensifying efforts against Iran in the regional (missile program, subversion, terror) and international (nuclear program) arenas. The writer, an expert on strategic issues with a focus on Iran, terrorism, and the Middle East, is a senior analyst at the Jerusalem Center.