Two fighter jets approach an Iranian Mahan Airline plane over Syria
Iran’s state TV reported that a Mahan Airline passenger plane heading to Lebanon was “threatened” over Syria by two jet fighters and claimed some of the passengers were injured due to the pilot’s decision to drop altitude. The plane safely landed in Beirut Airport later.
The spokesman for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has blamed the United States for the incident and warned that if anything happens to the plane on its way back it will be blamed on the U.S.
The pilot has also claimed that the fighter jets that approached the plane were American.
Previously some Iranian news sources had announced that they were Israeli fighter jets, but the Israeli army denied these speculations and said the fighter jets were not from Israel.
Tasnim News Agency, close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) announced that there were no political or military figures aboard the Mahan plane traveling to Beirut.
Mahan Airlines has been under U.S sanctions since 2011 for transporting IRGC weapons and forces to different areas in the region including Syria. Several European countries have also banned Mahan Airlines from their airspace.