by WorldTribune Staff, June 24, 2016
Boeing has chosen its bottom line over American lives with its agreement to sell more than 100 aircraft to Iran, a U.S. congressman said.
Rep. Peter Roskam, Illinois Republican, accused Boeing of “putting their financial interest first and foremost before American security” after the company announced the sale of $25 billion worth of commercial aircraft to Iran.
“I find it jarring that they’re that dismissive, that cavalier, and are making a strategic decision to become complicit in the world’s largest state sponsor of terror,” Roskam, chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, told The Daily Signal.
The agreement marks the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 that American aircraft have been sold to Teheran.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that Iran Air was, in my opinion, taken off the terror watch list as part of the [nuclear] deal with the Iranians,” Roskam said. “And it didn’t have anything to do with Iran Air changing its behavior. It was just simply a point of negotiation to open up and to induce them from coming to the table on the nuclear deal if they got access to airplanes.”
Roskam and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, Texas Republican, sent Boeing a letter last week raising concerns about the sale.
“We strongly oppose the potential sale of militarily-fungible products to terrorism’s central supplier,” the two Republicans wrote. “American companies should not be complicit in weaponizing the Iranian regime.”
Boeing responded to Roskam and Hensarling’s letter, saying it intended to sell 80 commercial airliners to Iran and secure sale of another 29 to a third party, which would then lease the aircraft to Teheran. Roskam characterized Boeing’s response as “underwhelming.”
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