The Iranian government replaced on Sunday Farzaneh Sharafbani, the first ever female CEO of Iran Air, with Tooraj Dehghani Zanganeh, who is on the United States’ sanction list.
Zanganeh was previously the CEO of Meraj Airlines, which was sanctioned by Washington in June 2018. Zanganeh was also personally added to the list.
According to the US Secretary of the Treasury Steve Menuchin, people added to the sanctions list allegedly provided assistance to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds force and the Iranian regime to transport weapons and money across the region to terrorist groups, specifically Hezbollah and the tyrant regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stated that Sharafbani’s appointment as one of his notable achievements regarding women’s status in Iranian society.
The management term of Sharafbani, who has a PhD in Aerospace Engineering, lasted less than two years.
The Islamic Republic uses national airlines to deliver arms to its proxies in the region.
Germany recently banned Iran’s Mahan Air, which was sanctioned by US for delivering arms to terrorist groups in Syria.
