Venezuela accused Argentina of violating international agreements on air navigation by agreeing to confiscate, at the request of the United States, an Iranian-Venezuelan plane held since June 2022 in Buenos Aires.
The Venezuelan government demanded that Argentina “immediately return the plane, which can fly only with explicit permission from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, to which it belongs,” according to a statement issued by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry on Saturday.
In the document, Venezuela condemned the decision of the Argentine authorities, who announced on Friday that a request to confiscate a Boeing 747 Dreamliner cargo plane, from Emtrasur, a subsidiary of the Venezuelan Aviation and Air Services Consortium (Conviasa, state-owned), was valid.
“The State of Argentina continues to violate its international obligations by signing international agreements,” such as the “Convention on International Civil Aviation, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the Charter of the United Nations, and the bilateral agreement between Argentina and France.” He added that Venezuela and others relate to international air navigation and human rights.
The Venezuelan government stressed that “the International Law and Principles Commission recognizes that the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which is the process of codification of international law, is an independent source of discipline, under the provisions of the Statute of the International Court, and therefore the treaty signed between the United States of America and Argentina does not apply.”
He added that Venezuela will resort “to the competent international bodies because of this new violation, which clearly demonstrates bias, discrimination, lack of respect for the international obligations undertaken by the Argentine state, unfriendly behavior and a lack of the simplest international courtesy.”
The Boeing 747 Dreamliner freighter was owned by Iran's Mahan Air and is now owned by Emtrasur, a subsidiary of Conviasa, companies subject to US Treasury (financial) sanctions.
The plane landed in Argentina on June 6, 2022, coming from Mexico, and stopped in Venezuela, allegedly transporting a shipment from a car company. Two days later, it headed towards Uruguay to refuel, but returned again to Ezeiza, the international airport in Buenos Aires. After the Uruguayan authorities did not allow the landing.
Argentine oil companies did not refuel the plane for fear of US sanctions, and later, on 11 July 2022, the Argentine government's decision to immobilize the plane was announced.
The Argentine court accepted the North American court's request to confiscate the plane, claiming that the transfer of the Iranian company to the Venezuelan company violates North American export laws.
One of the pilots of the plane detained in Argentina, Iranian Gholamreza Gashemi, has a name similar to a member of the Quds Force, one of the Revolutionary Guards’ divisions, who the United States knows is a trainer for the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement.
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