Boeing has reached a tentative agreement to sell passenger planes to Iran's state-run carrier, the aircraft maker said Tuesday, in the first potential major U.S. deal with Tehran since a nuclear accord last year lifted sanctions.
The pact with Iran Air is in the early stages and could face additional hurdles, including further review by U.S. trade regulators and possible political blowback from some U.S. lawmakers.
But it offers a potential groundbreaking test for other U.S. companies seeking to enter the large Iranian consumer market. It also signals an apparent win for moderate forces in Iran led by President Hassan Rouhani, who strongly backed the nuclear deal as a way to revitalize the country's sanctions-choked economy.
Iran's transportation minister, Abbas Akhoundi, was quoted by Iranian state media as placing the deal with Boeing at up to $25 billion - similar in scope to an earlier order with Boeing's European rival, Airbus.
Iran still flies dozens of Boeing aircraft built before the 1979 Islamic revolution and seeks to upgrade its Iran Air fleet with new-model Boeing 737s and versions of the Boeing 777.
Talks between Iran and Boeing have progressed for months and face challenges on both ends.
Iranian leaders had to overcome objections from hard-line factions opposing any direct outreach with the United States.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been openly wary of allowing greater business footholds for U.S. firms. But he has also allowed Rouhani's government to negotiate the nuclear accord as a way to ease sanctions and reopen trade ties with the West.
Boeing, in turn, needs clearance from U.S. trade authorities before finalizing the sale.
Boeing said Iran Air signed a deal expressing its "intent" to purchase aircraft, the Associated Press reported. Chicago-based Boeing gave no details on the size of the potential sale, which is still at the stage of an effective memorandum of understanding.
Akhoundi said the first Boeing planes could arrive by October if the deal moves forward.
"Boeing will continue to follow the lead of the U.S. government with regards to working with Iran's airlines, and any and all contracts with Iran's airlines will be contingent upon U.S. government approval," the company said in a statement, according to the AP.
Iran Air has already signed agreements to buy 118 planes from Airbus and 20 from ATR, a French-Italian aircraft manufacturer.
But in a sign of possible obstacles for Boeing, some U.S. lawmakers have complained about the company's outreach to Iran.
Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has said that institutions considering financing the sales "should ask whether it is in their long-term interests to profit from doing business with the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism. It's not American jobs that are on the line, but potentially American lives."
International on 06/22/2016