Wed, Jun 07, 2006
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.
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