The Boeing Blow: Doubts About The Iranian Government's Behaviour - Nuclear Production
07 June 2016By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed
The economy is very important to the existence of the Iranian regime and was
the main motive for it signing the nuclear deal with the west. However, Tehran
has still not achieved what is desired and has not obtained what it was
promised.
The biggest disappointment that Iran has faced concerning the JCPOA agreement
that it signed with the west earlier this year came when an American
congressional subcommittee blocked Boeing's deal to sell Iran 100 passenger
aircrafts which would have been the biggest deal in Iranian history.
Not only did the subcommittee's decision block the deal to sell 100 Boeing
planes to Iran, but it also blocked European Airbus factories from selling 118
civilian aircraft to Iran because they contain parts manufactured in America.
Lawmakers in Congress have not given politicians and traders any opportunities
to bypass the ban.
A number of parties testified before the congressional subcommittee that Iran
uses its national carrier Iran Air's fleet of passenger aircraft to transport
gunmen, weapons and money to Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. The committee warned
Boeing that it would be complicit in such activities in the event that the
deal was finalised and if Iran used its planes. Boeing acknowledged that it
will not have authority over how the Iranian regime would use them.
The subcommittee's decision will halt production and block Boeing's $24
billion deal which was supposed to be financed partly by Iranian funds that
have been frozen since the time of the Shah. It seems that the US government
does not want to defend the deal with Iran, and this is another sign of frosty
relations with Tehran three months after the historic agreement and the
agreement to end hostility were celebrated.
Even if the US government decided to confront Congress and reverse the
decision, that would take a long time which the Obama administration does not
have as the President's term ends in less than five months.
What was the Iranian government's reaction? It has either not recovered from
the shock yet or is trying to keep calm as there are opponents to the
agreement with the west. The new spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Bahram Ghasemi said ''We do not care about what's going on (with regards to)
internal affairs over there, we expect the US government to honour its
commitments''.
International sanctions on Iran have suffocated it and would have threatened
its existence if its government had not agreed to freeze its nuclear programme
after it had previously refused to even talk about it. If it does not achieve
the trade that it wants through the deal, Iran will face a difficult internal
political crisis.
Iran has disappointed Western politicians who thought that the agreement would
make it a positive force in the region. What has actually happened is that the
regime has become more evil due to the agreement.
Most of the speakers who participated in many of the recent seminars and
sessions on Iran said that they got the same impression; that the Iranian
regime has increased its aggressive military activity in the region after it
signed the agreement and not vice versa. Its relationship with the west is
shrouded in mutual distrust and the results of the JCPOA remain controversial.
There are doubts about the Iranian government's behaviour after information
about its quest to purchase devices related to nuclear production on the
European market has come to light, and the formation of the team that is in
charge of monitoring the nuclear deal has not yet been completed.
Al Rashed is the general manager of Al -Arabiya television. He is also the
former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al- Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly
magazine, Al Majalla. He is also a senior Columnist in the daily newspapers of
Al Madina and Al Bilad. He is a US post-graduate degree in mass
communications. He has been a guest on many TV current affairs programs. He is
currently based in Dubai.
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EsinIslam.Com
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