A trio of House lawmakers is pressing the Boeing Company to refrain from selling aircraft, parts or related services to Iran, citing the country’s links to terror financing.
In a letter to Boeing’s chief executive officer Dennis Muilenburg this week, the Illinois Republicans blasted the Chicago-based company for reportedly considering a business deal with Tehran.
“Such commercial transactions would effectively subsidize the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, significantly augmenting the regime’s ability to sow the seeds of death and destruction around the globe,” the lawmakers wrote.
The letter is signed by Illinois Republican Reps. Peter Roskam, Robert Dold and Randy Hultgren.
The lawmakers warned that Iran Air has used its planes to supply weapons, troops and cash on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and urged Boeing “not to be complicit in the likely conversion of Boeing aircraft to IRGC warplanes.”
“This is not about doing what is legal – it is about doing what is right,” the letter said.
The lawmakers added that they are exploring legislative options to emphasize the risks and repercussions of a deal they say places profits over safety.
US Rep. Robert Dold
Selling Boeing aircraft to Iran would turn airplanes into ’warplanes’, three members of Congress said.
The American firm offered Iranian airlines three models of new aircraft last month after President Obama reached a nuclear weapons deal with Iran.
In the open letter , Illinois Republican members of Congress say any deal ’would effectively subsidize the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.’
They highlight the Iranian government’s stake in Iran Air, and list the country’s ties to terrorism.
’We urge you not to be complicit in the likely conversion of Boeing aircraft to IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] warplanes.’
’The Islamic Republic is not simply an emerging market for Boeing. It is a radical Islamic regime dominated by zealots who seek nothing less than the destruction of the United States and the shared democratic principles of the Western world,’ the letter concludes.
US Rep. Peter Roskam
It is not the first time the trio have united against ties with Iran.
Before Obama signed the nuclear deal, Roskham, Dold and Hultgren put forward a set of reasons for why the agreement was not beneficial to America.
’The bottom line for any deal with Iran is that we must prevent the country from getting the bomb and setting off an arms race in the region,’ Hultgren said. ’Right now, I believe this deal fails to do that.’
The aircraft deal was first reported on April 11.
Boeing declined to discuss specifics from the negotiation with officials in Tehran.
The official IRNA news agency quoted Maqsoud Asadi Samani, the secretary of the Society of Iranian Airlines, as saying Boeing officials offered 737, 787 and 777 model aircraft. Samani said Iran was reviewing the offers.
Iranian airlines have some 60 Boeing airplanes in service, but most were purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and brought Islamists to power.
Out of Iran’s 250 commercial planes, about 150 are flying while the rest are grounded due to lack of spare parts.
Source: The Hill, Daily Mail, 4 May 2016
