Iran and Boeing signed a deal for the sale of 80 airplanes on Sunday, five weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, whose Republican supporters in Congress have tried to block any aircraft sales to Iran.
IranAir said it signed the deal, the biggest U.S.-Iran deal since the 1979 Islamic revolution, on Sunday at a total cost of $16.6 billion.
The sale includes 50 twin-jet, narrow-body 737 planes and 30 long-range, wide-body 777 aircraft. The first airplanes are scheduled for delivery in 2018, with the entire order being fulfilled over 10 years.
For nearly four decades, no American companies could engage in significant business with Iran, which officially considers the United States an archenemy. With the deal though, the country is not only buying aircraft from an American supplier; it also means there will be long-term interaction between Boeing trainers and employees of Iran Air.
In November, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill intending to block the sale of commercial aircraft to Iran that would bar the U.S. Treasury from issuing licences that U.S. banks would need to finance sales of commercial aircraft.
Congressional Republicans are making efforts to counter last year’s nuclear accord between Iran, the United States and other world powers, that eased sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
With American banks possibly being blocked from financing, thanks to Trump and maybe even transferring money involved in the deal, it is unclear how Iran would pay for the aircraft. The Iranian state news agency, IRNA, in a report on the deal, made no mention on who would finance the purchases. It did say that the agreement was not yet fully finalized.
Abbas Akhoundi, Iran’s minister of roads and urban development told state television that the contract was a clear message to the world. “In spite of all the warmongering, businessmen and financiers gave a signal to the world that we are supporters of calmness, security and the development of relations,” he said.
