US 'reviews' license to sell Boeing and Airbus planes to Iran
The United States Treasury Secretary announced on Wednesday, June 22, that his country will review the license to sell Boeing and Airbus passenger aircraft to Iran.
Steven Mnuchin, who appeared at the House Ways and Means Committee question and answer session to propose the new US budget, stated that he "will do everything at the Treasury Department to impose additional sanctions on Iran, Syria, and North Korea to protect American lives."
The news of the review of the license to sell new aircraft to Iran comes at a time when US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, when he received a vote of confidence from the Senate, had said that Washington was reviewing the Iran nuclear deal.
Since the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in January 2015, Iran has signed three contracts to purchase dozens of passenger aircraft with the Airbus, Boeing, and ITR consortia, totaling tens of billions of dollars.
So far, fewer than 10 of these aircraft have been delivered to Tehran, but most are scheduled to be delivered within the next few years.
Under a ban in place since 1995, Western factories were prohibited from selling aircraft equipment and spare parts to Iranian companies.
The sale of new aircraft is part of the commitments of six world powers to Iran, which agreed to halt many of its nuclear activities in the July 2015 nuclear deal.
However, Donald Trump, the new US President, is one of the main opponents of the agreement and promised during the election campaign that he would tear up the JCPOA if he won the presidency.
However, the US State Department informed Congress in late May that Iran had complied with its commitments under the JCPOA and had therefore extended the suspension of nuclear sanctions for another 120 days.
At the same time, the US Treasury Department has on several occasions placed Iranian individuals and entities on its new sanctions list due to Tehran's ballistic missile program.
Iran's air fleet currently consists of 140 passenger aircraft, with an average age of 20 years, and the need to replace them with new aircraft is strongly felt.
Source: Radio Farda
