ARMENIAN COMPANY TO FACE US SANCTIONS FOR SELLING PLANES TO IRAN

Haykakan Zhamanak
March 25 2008
Armenia

On Saturday [22 March] the US government announced sanctions against
some foreign companies. One of them is the Blue Airways company
registered in Armenia.

Balli Group Plc.,registered in Britain, and an entity linked to it
– an Iranian company called Mahan Air are among the companies that
will face sanctions. These three companies are accused of re-selling
US-made airplanes to Iran, which is prohibited by US legislation. It
is hard to imagine that an Armenian company could carry out such a
transaction without approval from the government, or at least without
its knowledge. Such transactions are simply not possible in Armenia
without high protection.