A senior House Democrat asked President Obama’s team to block the Boeing’s sales of aircraft to Iran Air, joining Republicans who warn the planes will be used to support terrorism.
Boeing has agreed to sell over 100 jets to Iran Air, but the deal must be licensed by the federal government.
“I believe that the agencies under your control should not license transfers of aircraft to Iran Air at this time and for the foreseeable future,” Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote in a June 29 letter to the Obama administration obtained by the Washington Examiner. “It is virtually certain that Iran Air will use these aircraft for nefarious purposes.”
That’s a common concern around Capitol Hill, but Iran might claim that any interference in the sale was a violation of the terms of the nuclear accord that Secretary of State John Kerry — one of the recipients of Sherman’s letter — negotiated over last few years. Under the terms of that pact, Iran Air was taken off of a list of sanctioned companies, but the deal must be licensed by the federal government.
“I believe that the agencies under your control should not license transfers of aircraft to Iran Air at this time and for the foreseeable future,” Sherman wrote to Kerry, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.
Sherman acknowledged that concessions made in the Iran nuclear deal, but emphasized that the airline retains a relationship with the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is still under sanction.
“There is no reason to believe that the conduct for which Iran Air was designated has actually stopped,” he wrote. “It is almost certain that Iran Air continues to support the IRGC and the Quds Force. Tracking information shows that Iran Air aircraft have recently traveled between Abadan and Damascus, a route whose principal purpose is to transit arms and materiel to forces loyal to Syria’s president Bashar Assad.”
Sherman’s effort bolsters the arguments made by Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., and other Republican lawmakers who have tried to pressure Boeing to drop the sales unilaterally. “This is not about doing what is legal — it is about doing what is right,” Roskam wrote in a recent letter to the company. “The airline is still owned and operated by a regime whose leaders have only grown bolder and brasher since the deal’s implementation. There is every reason to believe Iran Air will continue to provide logistical support for terrorism and illicit activity around the world.”
