US Gives Airbus Green Light to Sell 106 Planes to Iran

The US Treasury Department has authorized France's Airbus to sell 106 commercial planes to Iran Air, Iran's flagship carrier.

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control, an arm of the Treasury Department, granted the license to Airbus Group SE on Tuesday to deliver more than $20 billion in jets to Iran Air in the coming years, Reuters reported.

Airbus is based in France but it must have the US authorization to export planes to Iran because at least 10 percent of the aircraft’s parts are made in the United States.

The Treasury’s approval comes in the last months of the US President Barack Obama’s administration after anti-Iran sanctions were lifted as part of a landmark nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries last year.

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China – plus Germany signed the JCPOA in July 2015 and started implementing it in January 2016.

Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.

In January, Iran signed a major contract with European aviation giant, Airbus, worth about $27 billion to buy 118 planes within few months. The contract was signed during the visit to France by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani.

However, critics of plane sales to Iran have sought to block the transaction. The US House of Representatives passed a bill on November 17 that would bar the sale of commercial aircraft to Iran, which would also affect the US aerospace heavyweight, Boeing. The bill must now clear the Senate.

The White House announced that President Obama would veto the bill, saying it would undermine the international nuclear agreement.

The White House said US allies would view the legislation as a violation of the JCPOA.

IFP Media Wire

Reports and views published in the Media Wire section have been retrieved from other news agencies and websites, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Iran Front Page (IFP) news website. The IFP may change the headlines of the reports in a bid to make them compatible with its own style of covering Iran News, and does not make any changes to the content. The source and URL of all reports and news stories are mentioned at the bottom of each article.

Recent Posts

“Iran Hamdel” campaign sends aid to Gaza amid war

Aid items donated by millions of Iranians within a national campaign, have reached the beseiged…

2 hours ago

Iranian deputy FM: Cooperation with Saudis serves as a successful model for fostering peace and security

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht Ravanchi has said Iran and Saudi Arabia are committed…

2 hours ago

Official: Iran responds to IAEA resolution with increased nuclear enrichment capacity

Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), says the organization…

4 hours ago

Pictures: Demonstrators in Tehran support people of Gaza, Lebanon

Hundreds of people gathered in Tehran on Friday morning in front of the United Nations…

4 hours ago

Int’l lawyer: US plans to sanction countries cooperating with ICC on Netanyahu arrest

An international law expert and analyst has revealed the U.S. plans to impose punitive measures…

7 hours ago

Minister of science: 25% of Iranian university professors emigrated due to economic challenges

Iran’s Minister of Science, Research, and Technology, Hossein Simayee Saraf, addressed on Thursday academic migration…

7 hours ago