Crescent International
American Boeing Corporation has been granted license to sell spare parts to Iran after blocking such sales for more than 30 years. Some observers have suggested that the US is planning to position itself for future sales to Iran once there is an agreement on Iran's nuclear deal.
Washington, Crescent-online
Saturday April 05, 2014, 10:07 DST
Boeing Corporation, one of the major aircraft manufacturers in the US, has been granted a license by the US Treasury Department to sell aircraft spare parts to Iran.
Boeing officials will now contact the relevant authorities in the Islamic Republic to work out the details.
Iran had purchased a large fleet of Boeing planes including 747 jumbo jets for commercial flights. Under the agreement, the manufacturer was also required to provide spare parts for the planes.
After the victory of the Islamic revolution and when the US imposed sanctions, Boeing refused to supply the much-needed spares using the spurious argument that US law prohibited it from doing so.
Failure to supply spare parts has led to numerous crashes of Iran’s civilian airliners, although fortunately no Boeing 747s have been involved. The Islamic Republic was forced to use parts way past their expiration date making air travel unsafe.
With the granting of license last week, Iran will now be able to obtain spare parts for its aging airline fleet and ensure that planes are completely safe.
During this period, Iran has acquired aircraft from other countries, notably Russia. It has also placed orders for the Air Bus but such planes have not been delivered yet.
Boeing has been granted permission by the US Treasury Department for spare parts following the deal between Iran and the P5+1 countries in Geneva last November. The deal went into effect on January 20, 2014.
Since then, a series of meetings have been held to agree on the principles for a comprehensive deal, the latest of which wrapped up in Vienna last Wednesday.
The granting of license to Boeing has led to speculation that the Americans want to position themselves favorably once the sanctions are removed so that they US companies can move into Iran in a big way.
There is, however, still some uncertainty whether the US is completely sincere in its dealings with Iran. The granting of license for civilian aircraft was always on offer to Iran even in the past but Tehran rejected this as a minor issue in the overall equation.
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