Boeing and Airbus sales licenses to Iran revoked following US withdrawal from JCPOA
After announcing the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, the US Treasury Secretary said that the licenses for the sale of passenger aircraft by Boeing and Airbus to Iran would be revoked. Trump had said that sanctions against Iran would return with the US withdrawal from the JCPOA.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in Washington on Tuesday (May 8) that Boeing and Airbus would be revoked from selling passenger planes to Iran, shortly after Donald Trump announced the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran. He also said that the new US sanctions would also severely restrict Iran's oil exports.
Trump announced the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and said that US economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic would be reimposed. The 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which aimed to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons in exchange for serious restrictions on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, had lifted those sanctions.
After this agreement, Iran Air had ordered a total of 200 passenger aircraft: 100 from Airbus, 80 from Boeing, and 20 from the Franco-Italian company ATR. All deals by these aircraft manufacturers require approval from Washington due to their heavy dependence on American parts.
According to Reuters, the US Treasury Department, which is responsible for issuing export control licenses, has announced that after 90 days, it will no longer issue licenses to export passenger aircraft, their parts and services to Iran.
A Boeing spokesperson said after Steven Mnuchin's comments that the American company would continue to comply with US regulations. European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, however, has not yet responded to the US Treasury Secretary's remarks.
Iran's air fleet is worn out. After the signing of the JCPOA, the Iranian government made great efforts to rebuild its air fleet by signing contracts with aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus. But these efforts, like many of the concessions that Iran expected to gain from the JCPOA, faced serious obstacles with the rise to power of Donald Trump in the United States.
Officials in the Islamic Republic had previously repeatedly accused Washington of obstructing the delivery of American and European-made passenger planes to Iran, despite the nuclear agreement with world powers and the lifting of economic sanctions.
