FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ryan Costello
Phone: 202-386-6325
Email: [email protected]
Washington, DC – The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) issued the following statement following Boeing’s announcement that it has signed a $3 billion agreement with Iran’s Aseman Airlines:
Back to top“We welcome this agreement that will help sustain and create jobs in the U.S. and improve the safety of Iran’s aging commercial airliner fleet. Combined with Boeing’s previous $16.6 billion deal with Iran Air that was finalized late last year, this deal is a win-win that will benefit the American people and the Iranian people.
“President Trump has said that he would be the ‘greatest jobs president’ and Boeing just presented him an opportunity to prove it. One of the cornerstones of Trump’s economic policy is an emphasis on reinvigorating American manufacturing and keeping factories stateside. Permitting Boeing to smoothly sell and transfer planes to Iran’s commercial airline industry is the epitome of such a policy. Boeing is headquartered in Chicago and its planes are made by American hands in Washington and South Carolina.
“However, questions remain over whether the deal will actually materialize into the sale and delivery of planes. As part of the Iran nuclear agreement, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the Obama Administration began to issue licenses to Boeing and Airbus for the sale of civil passenger aircraft to Iran last year. These licenses are up for renewal in June and must be reapproved by President Trump’s administration.
“European competitors are already taking advantage of this uncertainty. Iran Air has started to receive French Airbus planes but has not yet received Boeing aircraft. This recent $3 billion Boeing deal will not begin until 2022.
“The Iranian aviation industry is a frontier market for aircraft manufacturers that have been sanctioned from doing business in Iran for decades. This has made Iranian airliners notoriously dangerous and cost companies like Boeing billions of dollars. As NIAC’s 2016 report, ‘Losing More Billions: The Cost of Iran Sanctions to the U.S. Economy,’ found, the United States is by far the biggest loser of all sanctions enforcing nations. From 1995 to 2014, the U.S. sacrificed between $203.1 and $271.8 billion in potential export revenues to Iran. The sale of civilian aircraft, and further opportunities for engagement with the Iranian market, is a welcome step in the right direction.”
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