Iran Invites Boeing for Talks, a Stride Toward Business Ties With the U.S.
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Version 0 of 1. Boeing has been invited to talks with Iranian officials about modernizing Iran’s aged commercial aircraft fleet, the country’s transport minister said Thursday, in what could be a precursor to the biggest business arrangement with an American company after more than three decades of estrangement. The talks would be among the first tangible results of a less-hostile climate between the United States and Iran since a landmark international agreement on Iran’s disputed nuclear activities took effect in January. The agreement ended or relaxed many sanctions on Iran in exchange for its verifiable guarantees of peaceful nuclear work. As part of the agreement, the United States will permit “the sale of commercial passenger aircraft and related parts and services to Iran,” which despite political sensitivities could make the country a potentially big customer for the civilian American aerospace industry. The Iranian transport minister, Abbas Akhondi, was quoted by Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim News Agency as saying that officials from Boeing had been invited to visit Iran regarding the purchase of Boeing aircraft. He did not specify the date for such a visit. Boeing said last month that as an outcome of the nuclear agreement, it had received a license from the United States government to conduct planning discussions with Iran about an aircraft fleet, a step meant to assess Iran’s needs before any negotiations for purchases. Reached for comment about Mr. Akhondi’s statement, a spokesman for Boeing, John Dern, declined to specify whether those planning discussions had even begun, but he said “any engagement we have with the Iranians will be limited to the license.” A separate license from the United States government would be required for Boeing to sell aircraft to Iran. Iranian officials have moved aggressively since the nuclear agreement took effect to acquire new aircraft, projecting that they will need at least 500 planes in the next decade to replace and expand their existing fleet. They have so far signed deals for more than 200 planes with three Western manufacturers, half of them under a contract with Boeing’s chief rival, Airbus, that European news reports said could be worth as much as $25 billion. Of the roughly 280 planes flown by more than a dozen airlines in Iran, including some aging Boeing 747s, many have been grounded because of mechanical and other issues, aviation industry analysts have said. The average age of Iran’s commercial airplanes exceeds 20 years and many are considered dangerously outdated — partly a legacy of the Western sanctions that severely limited Iran’s ability to replenish and maintain its civilian fleet. While Boeing has lagged in the newly opened Iranian market, Iran’s interest in purchasing Boeing jetliners is well known. Iranian aviation officials have been quoted in the domestic media as saying they would like to purchase equal numbers of Boeing and Airbus planes. Tasnim quoted the deputy transport minister, Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, as saying that Iran wants Boeing 737s, one of the world’s most widely used jetliners. Despite the engagement with Boeing, Iran largely remains off limits commercially to American businesses because many other sanctions unrelated to the nuclear accord remain in effect, most notably a wide-ranging embargo on direct trade in many goods and services. Some of these sanctions date back to the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian revolution and the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran. With some exceptions, American banks must avoid dealing with Iran. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned that the nuclear agreement does not portend a reconciliation with the United States, and many hard-liners in Iran remain strongly opposed to any move toward closer ties. President Hassan Rouhani, an architect of the nuclear agreement, has taken a more nuanced tone about the future, and his political allies made important gains in parliamentary elections last week. |