Boeing’s agreement with Iran comes under congressional scrutiny

Boeing Co.’s historic agreement to provide 109 aircraft to Iran’s national airline is coming under increasing pressure from lawmakers in Washington.
“I am extremely concerned that by relaxing the rules, the Obama administration has allowed US companies to be complicit in weaponizing the Iranian regime,” Republican Representative Bill Huizenga of Michigan said at a recent hearing of a House Financial Services subcommittee.
The deal announced in June with Iran Air would be the biggest business transaction between the US and Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the US hostage crisis. It’s part of the Islamic Republic’s return to global markets under the agreement with world powers that eased economic sanctions in return for Iran curbing its nuclear program.
Iran Air has agreed to buy 80 planes for a list price of $17.6 billion, said Tim Neale, a spokesman for Chicago-based Boeing. Iran will lease another 29 planes with Boeing’s support. It follows a $27 billion, 118-plane order to Europe’s Airbus Group SE in January. Iran has inked more than $50 billion in aircraft investments to upgrade its aged fleet.
While a range of European companies have substantial leeway now to do business with Iran, civilian aircraft sales are among the few exceptions from continuing US sanctions based on Tehran’s record on human rights, support for terrorism, and ballistic missile testing.
Panel members discussed three measures to restrict the deal, including one that would bar the US Export-Import Bank from financing any entity that does business with Iran or provides financing to another entity to facilitate transactions with the Islamic Republic. The Ex-Im Bank is currently unable to approve major financing deals anyway, because conservative critics have blocked confirmation of three nominees needed for its board of directors to have a quorum. “We’ve made it clear to the Iranian airlines that the Ex-Im bank would not be available to back up the financing,” Neale said in an interview. 
“We can’t conclude the transaction until the US government has given the green light to the agreement.”
Other measures proposed in Congress would prohibit the Treasury Department from licensing the sale, and bar Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew from authorizing certain transactions by US financial institutions connected to the export of aircraft.
Democratic Representative Denny Heck of Washington state, where Boeing has major operations, said that if proposed bills to restrict the deal became law they would also affect other companies’ sales to Iran. Because virtually all modern jets have more than 10 percent US content, including those Airbus plans to sell, they already require export licenses from the US.

Source: Arab News