Although the Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran opened world markets up to the Middle Eastern nation, at least one U.S. firm will not be selling the country any planes now that President Donald Trump has pulled the U.S. out of the deal.
U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) lauded Boeing’s decision in a statement released this week.
“Boeing’s recent decision to refrain from selling jets to Iran, the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, is a welcome change of direction for the company, and I applaud their decision,” Roskam said.
U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL)
The agreement between Boeing and Iran pre-dated the president’s cancellation of the 2015 nuclear agreement, according to the Times of Israel. In 2016, the company had struck a deal to sell Iran 80 airplanes. In April, Boeing agreed to sell the country an additional 30 planes. None of the airplanes were delivered, the Times of Israel reported.
Given that U.S. officials were preparing to revoke the licenses for Boeing to sell the planes, as Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told CNBC, Boeing decided to honor U.S. policy.
The loss of potential Iranian business is rumored to cost the company up to $20 billion, but Boeing credits astute management with minimizing the loss.
“We mitigated the risk of Iran in our production plans,” Bernard Dunn, Boeing’s president of Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, told CNBC.
Roskam said Boeing’s decision would support stability in the war-torn region.
“If delivered, these planes would have likely been used to transport troops and weapons to the Assad regime to support its atrocities against the Syrian people and to terrorist groups throughout the Middle East,” Roskam said. “The fewer aircraft [that] Iran and its Revolutionary Guard Corps can use to sow death and destruction around the world, the better.”
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