Iran has finalized a historic deal with Boeing to buy passenger planes from the U.S. aircraft manufacturer as part of an ongoing effort to upgrade the country's civilian air fleet, Iranian media reported Tuesday.
The deal will be announced in the coming days, Iran's minister of roads and urban development, Abbas Akhoundi, told the semi-official Iranian FARS news agency.
If approved, the agreement would mean that new American aircraft would fly over Iran for the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Reuters reported. IranAir would acquire more than 100 Boeing jets under the potential multi-billion-dollar deal.
It also would be the largest commercial agreement between a U.S. company and Tehran since some sanctions were lifted six months ago as part of the agreement aimed at stopping Iran's nuclear weapons program, according to The New York Times.
A Boeing spokesman confirmed in an email to Reuters that, "We have been engaged in discussions with Iranian airlines approved by the U.S. government about potential purchases of Boeing commercial passenger airplanes and services." But, the spokesman added, "We do not discuss details of ongoing conversations we are having with customers, and our standard practice is to let customers announce any agreements that are reached. Any agreements reached will be contingent on U.S. government approval."
Such approval could prove difficult to obtain, the Times reports, because remaining sanctions ban the use of dollars in trade with Iran and Republican lawmakers who opposed the nuclear agreement would likely object to such a deal.
It is also possible Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would block the deal due to his enduring mistrust of the U.S. government.
IranAir also agreed in January to buy 118 planes from the European company Airbus in a deal reported to be worth $27 billion.
Iran is seeking to replace around 400 planes to modernize its aged fleet, Reuters reports.
