by WorldTribune Staff, August 28, 2017

Israel’s spy agency is said to have delivered evidence to the United States that shows Iran is in violation of the nuclear deal.

Mossad director Yossi Cohen, who headed an Israeli delegation to Washington, D.C. last week, is said to have provided the Trump administration and Congress with photographic evidence showing Iran using civilian airplanes to transfer military equipment and troops to Syria.

Under U.N. Security Resolution 2231, Iran is prohibited from using civilian aircraft for the transportation of troops and military equipment. The resolution is a key part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear agreement between six world powers and Iran.

Mossad said the photos show Iran’s Mahan Air and Iran Air are airlifting the equipment and troops to Syria during the night to avoid satellite tracking.

The photos of the airlifts, reportedly taken in 2016 and 2017, are said to show members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Shi’ite militia fighters aboard Iranian civilian aircraft on their way to Damascus.

“The militants are believed to be affiliated with the Fatemiyoun Brigade, an Afghan Shi’ite militia, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which first disclosed the photographs to Congress,” Adam Kredo reported for the Washington Free Beacon late last week.

In a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department, four Republican lawmakers demanded the Trump administration investigate the matter and consider new sanctions on Iran.

The congressmen, Reps. Peter Roskam of Illinois, Lee Zeldin of New York, Andy Barr of Kentucky and David Reichert of Washington, said the people displayed in the photos are not civilians.

“These individuals are not Afghani civilians; they are believed to be members of an Iranian-backed militia, trained and funded by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), actively fighting for the Assad regime in Syria,” the lawmakers wrote.

Iran Air is “facilitating the ongoing atrocities committed against the Syrian people by the Assad regime and its allies,” they added.

Sanctions could include a new ban on the sale of U.S. civilian aircraft to Iran, the lawmakers said.

Iran’s purchase of 80 aircraft from Boeing in a $16.6 billion deal is currently “under development,” according to Reuters.

“Iran’s use of commercial aircraft for military purposes violates international agreements as well as Iranian commitments under the JCPOA,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter to the Trump administration.

“During this investigation, the United States should suspend current and future licenses for aircraft sales to Iran,” the lawmakers demanded, while noting that Iran Air “has engaged in the illicit transport of military goods and personnel to Syria since the implementation of the” JCPOA.

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