Jets For Nukes?

The US continues to dance the diplomatic dance with Iran... and in the process, guess what's become the latest step?

A senior Bush administration official says it's the Boeing two-step -- allowing Iran to buy, for the first time in 27 years, Boeing planes and parts. Of course, in exchange for the planes, Iran would have to give up its efforts to build a nuclear weapons program... one Iran insists it isn't building, but that Western diplomats are almost certain is in the works.

There's no word on whether Iran is interested, but the country's foreign secretary has presented the idea to Parliament.

For over 25 years, the US has banned Iran from purchasing US-made planes and parts, and that includes Boeing. Since many of the aircraft now in the Iranian civil fleet were made by Boeing... the country is desperate for spares.

Iran has frequently complained that the US ban on parts has undermined safety, and has blamed the ban for several deadly crashes -- an issue even some US officials have raised.

"I was sort of taking the position, 'I'm sorry that they're the enemy ... but I don't think it's good for anybody to have their planes falling out of the sky,'" said William Reinsch, a former high-ranking Commerce Department official in the Clinton administration, to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "That's not what we as Americans ought to be for."

If Iran goes for the deal... the spare parts spigot would likely open, benefitting both that country's aerospace industry, and the American manufacturer.

FMI: www.state.gov, www.boeing.com