Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pushed for the return of the Boeing 747-300M transport aircraft detained in Argentina.

"Now they intend to steal our plane, as they stole our gold in London, as they stole from us [oil refinery in the United States] Citgo, steal a plane belonging to Venezuela ... We declare our protest that the Venezuelan plane be returned to us," Maduro said on the VTV channel.

The US Department of Justice urged the Argentine authorities to seize a Boeing 747-300M transport aircraft, which they claim was transferred by an Iranian airline to Venezuelan counterparts is linked to the US sanctions on Iran. 

The case file stated that the plane was under the control of Venezuela's Emtrasur, which allowed "the re-export of the aircraft between Caracas, Venezuela, Tehran, Iran, and Moscow, Russia, without the permission of the US government."

On that note, Iran's Mahan Airlines refuted news being reported on the seizing of one of its planes in Argentina, stressing that the airplane in question is owned by Venezuela.

IRNA news agency reported, quoting Mahan's public relations bureau, that the aircraft that was seized in Venezuela has nothing to do with Mahan Airlines.

It is worth noting that the Boeing 747 was sold to Emtrasur, a subsidiary of the Venezuelan company Conviasa, by an Iranian company, Mahan Air, in October 2021. The two countries have signed a 20-year cooperation plan as a way to overcome the sanctions imposed against them by the US.

Both the previous Iranian owner of the Boeing 747 as well as the Venezuelan owner of the plane have been sanctioned by the US for different reasons. The US Department of Justice used this pretext to justify its request from Argentina to confiscate the plane.

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