Two Congress Representatives Urge Trump to Cancel Boeing Sales to Iran

A Republican senator and a member of the House of Representatives from the United States have urged President Donald Trump to cancel the agreements for the sale of Boeing aircraft to Iran in a letter. Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Peter Roskam are both lawmakers who have previously expressed their opposition or criticism of the agreement between Boeing and Iranian passenger airlines. In part of the letter published on the senator's website, Rubio states, "We call for the cancellation of current and future licenses for the sale of aircraft to Iranian passenger airlines until your administration conducts a thorough review of their role in supporting illegal activities." The two representatives also demand the imposition of sanctions against Iranian airlines that are found to have engaged in what they describe as "illegal" support. Rubio and Roskam claim that these aircraft are used to support or transport equipment and personnel for Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria, or groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or the Houthis in Yemen. Iranian officials have denied allegations of transferring weapons and similar activities using passenger aircraft. Iran Air has reached an agreement with Boeing to purchase 80 aircraft, of which 30 are 777 models and 50 are 737s. The Aseman Airlines has also reached an agreement with Boeing to purchase 30 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. The Boeing 777 is a wide-body twin-engine aircraft that can carry between 314 to 396 passengers. The Boeing 737 is a short to medium-range aircraft capable of transporting between 85 to 215 passengers. Rubio and Roskam have previously criticized these agreements, with Rubio describing it as "concerning" and Roskam calling it a "scandal." On the other hand, Senator John McCain, a Republican senator and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, stated that although he opposes the Iran nuclear deal and has "no interest in providing any assistance to the Iranians," "what they have done is completely legal." Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also emphasized that as long as the Boeing-Iran agreement is based on the "JCPOA," Congress cannot prevent it. The purchase of aircraft for Iranian companies, whose fleets have become severely outdated over the years, became possible following the nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers in July 2015. Boeing claims that its contracts with Iranian parties will create thousands of job opportunities in the United States in the coming years.