Al Monitor | Saeed Jalili: Questions have emerged about whether the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued new licenses to Canadian plane manufacturer Bombardier Inc. to sell passenger aircraft to Iran. If true, it would be the first such approval since President Donald Trump took office and comes at a time when Tehran is trying to overcome financing challenges associated with aircraft deals signed in the aftermath of its nuclear accord with the six world powers.


Morteza Sheikhzadeh, a spokesman for Iran’s Qeshm Free Area Organization, told Al-Monitor that Bombardier has reportedly received a license to supply 10 regional CRJ series jets to the organization for its soon-to-be-launched airline, Fly Qeshm. “We and the Canadian company are reviewing the drafted contract, but we haven’t exchanged the papers as of yet,” Sheikhzadeh said. “OFAC licenses for these sales were issued recently.”

Bombardier did not respond to Al-Monitor’s request for comment, and a Treasury spokesperson declined to comment on the license, citing “trade secrets protections and other considerations.”

Over the past two years, requests concerning permits to export planes to Iran have been piling up at the Treasury Department. In addition to Bombardier, a number of other companies have been in talks with Iranian airlines to sell them planes — US firm Boeing, France-based Airbus, French-Italian ATR, Brazil’s Embraer and the Russian JSC Sukhoi Company. Washington’s green light is required for sales of aircraft to Iran when more than 10% of the components are supplied by US companies. OFAC has not responded to aircraft sales licensing requests since the first of such licenses were issued during the Barack Obama administration.

 

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