The Obama administration has determined that enabling the sale of aircraft and other materials to an Iranian airline sanctioned for ferrying weapons on behalf of Iran’s military does not undermine its foreign policy goals, according to communications with Congress obtained exclusively by THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
Administration officials have resisted explaining why restrictions were dropped on Iran Air, which had been sanctioned for helping Iran bolster Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, among other illicit activities, and have not said whether the airline has stopped engaging in the activities it was originally sanctioned for.
“I’m not at liberty to go into the reasons behind the fact that it was removed from the SDN [Specially Designated Nationals] list,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters in June.
In response to a recent inquiry from Illinois representative Peter Roskam, the Treasury Department revealed that delisting the airline promoted the administration’s foreign policy priorities.
“We made the commitment to remove Iran Air from the SDN List only after a careful review of its activity to ensure that its removal would be consistent with our national security and foreign policy goals,” the letter said.
Experts insist that Iran Air continues to engage in illicit activities. The Treasury Department declined to comment on the record about whether the airline still does so.
“The reason the Obama administration isn’t claiming that Iran Air is clean is because it’s not,” a source who has worked closely with Congress on the Iran airline issue told TWS. “They’ve tried to create this fantasy world in which doing business with the airline is safe, but it’s not.”
Iran Air has conducted at least 56 flights from Iran to Syria since the implementation of the nuclear deal in January, according to a memo from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).
“Iran Air has not ceased its illicit activities. It continues to fly the supply route, ferrying weapons and militants to the Syrian regime, which has killed almost 500,000 civilians in the last five years,” read the memo, based on research by FDD senior fellow Emanuele Ottolenghi.
Administration officials have granted licenses to Boeing and the European manufacturer Airbus that allow for the sale of dozens of commercial planes to Iran Air. The administration used a “technicality” under the nuclear deal to enable such sales.
Roskam introduced legislation to block the Boeing and Airbus deals, which passed the House in July. Another piece of legislation that would bar the sale of commercial aircraft to Iran passed the House in November.
