New York Times | Iran May Get First New Boeing Jetliner a Year Ahead of Time - The ... New York Times A IranAir Boeing 747SP aircraft leaving Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport in 2011. Iran is desperate for new planes to replace its aging commercial fleet. |
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Iran May Get First New Boeing Jetliner a Year Ahead of Time - The ... - New York Times
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BY: Adam Kredo April 12, 2017 5:00 am
U.S airline manufacturer Boeing is coming under renewed criticism following disclosures that its latest deal with Iran is being inked with a senior regime official and leading member of the country's Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has sponsored terrorism across the Middle East and is responsible for helping to kill U.S. soldiers.
Boeing's latest dealwhich the Washington Free Beacon first reported last week has been put under a critical review by the Trump administrationis being inked with Iran Aseman Airlines, which is owned and controlled by the state. The CEO of Aseman Airlines is Hossein Alaei, a "prominent and longtime member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps," or IRGC, according to several members of Congress who are petitioning the Trump administration to cancel the sales.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Rep. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.) expressed concern that Boeing's sale of around 60 new planesto Aseman Airlines will bolster the IRGC's global terrorism operation and help the Iranian regime transport weapons and troops to conflict areas such as Syria.
The lawmakers calledon the Trump administration to immediately suspend licenses permitting these sales and conduct a review of Iran's effort to use commercial aircraft forillicit activities.
"Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, has systematically used commercial aircraft for illicit military purposes, including to transport troops, weapons, and cash to rogue regimes and terrorist groups around the world," the lawmakers wrote. "The possibility that U.S.-manufactured aircraft could be used as tools of terror is absolutely unacceptable and should not be condoned by the U.S. government."
Rubio and Roskam asked the administration to "suspend current and future licenses for aircraft sales to commercial Iranian airlines until your administration conducts a comprehensive review of their role in supporting Iran's illicit activity."
Instead of granting Boeing a license forthese sales, the United States should take immediate steps to "revoke authorizations and re-impose sanctions on Iranian airlines found guilty of such support, and should bar U.S. companies from selling aircraft to Iran until the Iranian regime ceases using commercial airliners for illicit military purposes," according to the letter.
The latest information about Boeing's deal with Aseman Airlines and IRGC leader Alaei has only heightenedconcerns about the danger of the Trump administration approving thesales.
Alaei served as commander of the IRGC Navyuntil 1990. During that time, Alaei oversaw the harassment of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf and efforts by the IRGC Navy to plant mines in international waters.
Alaei also served as the head of the IRGC's general staff and a deputy minister of defense before assuming control of Iran's Aviation Industries Organization, which is currently subject to U.S. sanctions.
Alaei serves as a lecturer at Iran's ImamHossein University, the IRGC's national defense college, which also has been sanctioned by the United States.
"With his deep ties and service to the IRGC, Hossein Alaei's position as CEO of Aseman therefore casts a dark shadow on the corporate ownership of and control over the airlines, and raises significant concerns that Iran Aseman Airlines is part of the IRGC's economic empire and a tool used to support its malign activity abroad," according to Rubio and Roskam.
Boeing also ispursuing deals with Iran Air, the country's flagship carrier, and Mahan Air. Both have been sanctioned by the United States.
These carriers have been accused of using "commercial aircraft to transport weapons, troops and other tools of war to rogue regimes like the Syrian dictatorship of Bashar al Assad, terrorist groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, and militant groups like the Houthi rebels in Yemen," the lawmakers wrote.
Boeing could bolster Iran's illicit activities and help the country revamp its aging fleet of planes, according to the lawmakers.
"There is no reason to believe Iran has ceased its malicious activity," Rubio and Roskamwrote. "Compelling evidence indicates that commercial Iranian airliners remain pivotal in delivering military support to terrorist groups and dictatorships around the Middle East."
"Iran's commercial airlines have American blood on their hands," they wrote.
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Boeing Trying to Sell Planes to Leading Official of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps - Washington Free Beacon
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In the first few weeksof the Trump administration, some senior figures began floating a new plan: President Trump's improved relations with Moscowwould help the White House force a split between Russia and Iran, bothstaunch allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"If theres a wedge to be driven between Russia and Iran, were willing to explore that,"said asenior administration officialto the Wall Street Journal's Jay Solomon in February aboutthe"emerging strategy."
But a few weeks later, it's clear that the White House has neither the diplomatic savvy nor the conditionson the ground needed to create such a wedge. The American airstrikes launched last week against a Syrian airfield has ratcheted up the tension between the United States and Russia. The strike wasintended to deliver a "message" to Assadand his allies that the United States will no longer tolerate chemical weapons attacks on civilians, but it has also rallied Assad's patrons around him.
The joint command center that coordinates Russian and Iranian forces as well as other militias fighting for the Assad regime issued a statement on Sundaysaying the United States had crossed its own "red line" by bombing theSyrian government air base.
"What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines," read the statement. "From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well." The Russian military has also shut down its hotline to U.S. forces, which the two countries used to keep their aircraft in Syria out of each others' way.
While this is very likely symbolic bluster,top Iranian and Russian officials have indeed conferred after the U.S. strike. Unsurprisingly, they don't seem ready toshift their strategy in Syria.
Meanwhile, the White House is ratcheting up the rhetorical pressure on the Kremlin. "I think what we should do is ask Russia, how could it be, if you have advisers at that airfield, that you didnt know that the Syrian air force was preparing and executing a mass murder attack with chemical weapons?"said Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, on Fox News. U.S. officials alsotold the Associated Presson Monday thatRussia probably hadadvance knowledge of last week's chemical weapons strike, something Moscow denies.
This all means that Secretary of State of Rex Tillerson, who will visit Moscow this week, is probably in for an awkward trip. As my colleague Carol Morello reported, Tillerson still intends to push for Russia to distanceitself from Assad, even if there's little chance of success.
"This is a big cold shower," said Samuel Charap, a Russia analyst with the Rand Corp., to Morello. "Even if behind closed doors they might engage on other issues in a more pragmatic manner, the public posture is going to be one of emphasizing how they disagree about [Syria]. [Vladimir] Putin is not going to want to be seen as chummy with the U.S. secretary of state."
The idea of coaxing Russia away from Iran is "certainly not going to go anywhere now," said Alex Vatanka, an Iran expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington. Indeed, he said, "the opposite result has been achieved."
In many respects, Iran and Russia aren't natural allies. There's much that divides them, not least hundreds of years of historical rivalry. Both countries are energy exporters vying for similar markets. Both governments harbor larger ambitions of geopolitical dominance in the Middle East. And, of course, there are always going to be limits to any alliance between the Islamic republic and a Russian leadership partiallyanimated by a brand ofChristian nationalism.
"Russia is hardly interested in Irans so-called Axis of Resistance, which stretches from Iran to Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria and essentially consists of Shia forces," noted Mohsen Milani in Foreign Affairs last year. "Given its ambition to become a great power in the Middle East, it cannot alienate the Sunni countries. Nor is Russia interested in antagonizing Israel. In fact, relations between Israel and Russia are exceptionally friendly."
But Russia and Iran need each other in Syria to buttress Assad."The glue is their common enmity toward the United States" and Washington'simperatives in the region, Vatanka said.
"At the moment, it is going to be difficult to drive a wedge between Russia and Iran," wrote Anna Borshchevskaya of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in February. "Too many interests hold them together." And after the events of the past few days, those bonds seem even harder to unwind.
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The Russian and Iranian ties that the US can't seem to break - Washington Post
Iran says it expects its oil production to reach around four million barrels per day (mb/d) by next March.
Irans Oil Minister says he expects the countrys overall oil production capacity to reach around four million barrels per day (mb/d) by next March.
Bijan Zanganeh emphasized that this would be materialized once a series of new oil development projects came on stream.
The new projects, as he named, included several key fields located in West Karoun region as well as Azar and Oil Layer.
Zanganeh told reporters after a cabinet meeting that Azar was already producing 15,000 barrels per day (bpd), stressing that this could increase to as much as 60,000 bpd in the near future, Irans IRNA news agency reported.
He added that the output at Oil Layer was also at around 25,000 bpd which, as he suggested, would increase higher in the near future.
Zanganeh further emphasized that Irans production of condensate a form of ultra-light oil that has found a pivotal position in Irans oil exports was expected to increase as more projects in South Pars came on stream.
He said Irans average exports of oil and condensate stood at above 2 mb/d over the Iranian year that ended on 21 March 2017.
After the removal of sanctions early last year that had kept Irans oil production at around 2.9 mb/d since 2011, the countrys oil production started to rise by multiple hundred thousand barrels within a matter of a few months.
The latest figure on Irans oil production that was reported by Reuters recently put the countrys average oil production after the removal of sanctions at around 2.7 mb/d.
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Iran's oil output to reach 4mb/d next March - Press TV
MOSUL, Iraq Two houses are all that remain standing on the street with no name in western Mosul, just blocks from the front lines of the battle to retake Iraq's second-largest city from the Islamic State group.
The once-bustling neighborhood has been reduced to rubble, its sidewalks piled high with a jumble of concrete, bricks and metal.
Standing amid the debris of what was once his home on the newly liberated street, Maan Nawaf blamed IS for the destruction around him. It was IS fighters, he said, who drew the devastating firepower of the Iraqi and coalition warplanes to the street by positioning snipers on top of the buildings after ordering residents to leave, including his elderly mother.
"We said we have a disabled woman, she can't walk. They said if you don't go, we will kill you," he said. The family knew the militants would make good on the threat: IS fighters killed two of his brothers, one of whom was a policeman, as well as his nephew, Nawaf said.
For the few residents who remain in Mosul's Wadi Hajar neighborhood, the war is far from over. Just blocks away, police units fired mortars at IS positions and helicopters circled overhead, firing into the streets below. IS returned fire only sporadically, the treacherous calm luring the residents into the street between the crashes of mortars.
Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes launched their assault on western Mosul in mid-February after taking the eastern sector of the city in more than three months of heavy fighting. While nearly two months of house-to-house battles have flushed the militants out of parts of the city's western sector, fighting rages nearby.
Food remains a problem. Few aid trucks reach the area and food distribution can descend into chaos. Among those who managed to grab a parcel at a recent distribution was Firas Mohammed al-Jibouri. Taking it home with his young son, he opened it in his living room to find a packet of baby milk, bulgur and two bottles of oil. There was also some sugar and wheat.
"It's just enough for one day. We are 25 people here 25. Just one day," he said, looking forlornly at the small pile of provisions.
A former truck driver, Jibouri has lost his livelihood: His house is one of the two still standing but his truck is gone. Any vehicles that survived the airstrikes were used for barricades or destroyed by advancing Iraqi forces fearful of car bombs.
Out in the street, Jibouri pointed at individual piles of rubble and recalled those who were killed there, many of them members of his extended family. One pile used to be the Khaled Ibn al-Waleed mosque, the centerpiece of the neighborhood. Jibouri said 43 people were killed there two months ago when it was hit by back-to-back airstrikes, the second striking as people were trying to dig out the victims of the first.
Surrounding one of the damaged trucks, a group of men and boys worked to remove a valuable intact wheel. One child rolled it away, and it wobbled away from him into a puddle of mud. As he struggled to lift it, a man and his young daughter sat silently in front of their house.
Mahmoud Alo said the only thing he hears from his daughter, Amna, these days is a brief yes or no. Clearly traumatized by the violence around her, she has been sleeping little and spends her days staring into space. As gunfire reverberated nearby, drowning out her father's words, Amna looked around nervously at a helicopter rocketing an IS position.
"Whatever you ask her, she just says 'No.' Come she doesn't come. Bring this she doesn't understand," her father said.
He took her to a makeshift clinic, but the only thing the medics could do was give them some tranquillizers. With no immediate hope of further treatment and the war still raging around her, Amna sits sedated, and just stares.
At the other end of the street, al-Jibouri finished recounting all the death and destruction that has visited his neighborhood, trying to measure the cost of his new-found freedom from IS.
"It's a tragedy," he concluded.
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Street turned to rubble shows cost of fight for Iraq's Mosul - Fox News