The U.S. Revokes License for Selling Passenger Aircraft to Iran

On Wednesday, July 6, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the cancellation of part of the sanctions against Iran that had been agreed upon in the JCPOA. In the first step, Washington revoked the license for the sale of commercial aircraft (with American parts and ownership) to Iran. Iran and the P5+1 reached an agreement in July 2015 after two years of negotiations regarding Tehran's nuclear activities. According to this international agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran limited its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of nuclear sanctions and the removal of its case from the UN Security Council. However, Donald Trump, the U.S. President, withdrew from this agreement on May 8 of this year, as he had promised, and announced that he would impose the most severe sanctions against Iran. In line with this policy, the U.S. Treasury Department revoked the license for the sale of commercial aircraft to Iran on Wednesday. Accordingly, companies that use American parts to manufacture aircraft or are American-owned will lose the right to sell aircraft to Iran. The department also revoked the licenses of American companies for importing Iranian carpets, pistachios, and caviar. In this announcement, companies that cooperate with Iran in any of the above cases were warned to cease their activities by August 6 of this year or face U.S. sanctions. Three months later, another part of the U.S. licenses that allows for the import of oil from Iran will be revoked. With the revocation of the licenses that took place on Wednesday, the sale of 80 Boeing aircraft, 97 Airbus aircraft, and 12 ATR aircraft to Iran will be canceled unless these companies can obtain exemptions from the Trump administration. Since May, when the U.S. government withdrew from the nuclear agreement with Iran, this decision by Washington was predictable. Trump has repeatedly stated that the JCPOA, one of Barack Obama's significant achievements in international politics, is the worst agreement the U.S. has ever accepted, as it granted numerous concessions to Iran in exchange for minimal benefits. Trump has also complained that the JCPOA did not limit Iran's harmful non-nuclear activities. Other signatories of the JCPOA, including Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China, have criticized the U.S. withdrawal from this agreement, which has put it at risk of failure. The Trump administration has increased efforts to isolate Tehran and block Iran's troubled economy from accessing international financial markets and banking networks. Washington announced on Tuesday that it is pressuring other countries to reduce their oil imports from Iran to zero by November 4. This comes as the U.S. had previously stated that these countries must reduce their oil imports from Iran because, under U.S. sanctions, all transactions between the central banks of other countries and Iran's central bank are prohibited. A senior U.S. State Department official, who wished to remain anonymous, stated that a delegation of State Department and National Security Council officials is currently in Europe to convey this message. He said the U.S. government will work with Gulf oil-producing countries to increase oil production to prevent a global shortage. According to the U.S. Energy Agency, some of Washington's close allies, including India and South Korea, are importers of Iranian oil. Turkey and Japan also source a significant portion of their oil needs from Iran. The largest buyer of Iranian oil last year was China. Meanwhile, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, who is visiting India, spoke on Wednesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the importance of cutting India's dependence on Iranian oil. India is one of the major importers of Iranian oil in Asia.