As reported by Reuters, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), an arm of the Treasury Department, provided Iran Air, Iran's flagship carrier, with the license to purchase 106 passenger planes from Airbus Airbus Group SE.
Although Airbus Aerospace Company is headquartered in Toulouse of France and planes are manufactured inside the French territory, receiving a permit from OFAC remains mandatory since at least 10 per cent of aircraft parts are made in America.
OFAC’s permit is granted to Airbus Group SE at a time when US President Barak Obama is in final months of his administration. Meanwhile, the license has been issued as part of the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), between Iran and the 5+1 group of countries.
The permit comes at a time when US President-elect Donald Trump had announced that he would ban sales of commercial aircraft to Iran.
Accordingly, last week on November 17, the US House of Representatives passed a bill would ban the sale of US aerospace heavyweight Boeing commercial aircraft to Iran.
The White House announced that President Obama would veto the bill, saying it would undermine the international nuclear agreement.
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