Officials: US OKs Airbus sale of over 100 planes to Iran
President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to re-negotiate President Barack Obama's signature foreign policy achievement, the seven-nation deal that imposed strict limits on Iran's nuclear activity in exchange for the end of wide-ranging oil, trade and financial sanctions.
In a letter to Obama on Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan and two other top Republican lawmakers urged the president "not to take any action that would weaken United States or multilateral sanctions or other restrictions against Iran in this post-election period."
The Treasury Department echoed that sentiment, saying the United States already had committed to licensing the export of commercial passenger aircraft to Iran and the U.S. would fulfill that commitment.
The planes are intended for Iran Air, whose sanctions were removed in January, and not Mahan Air, a company backed by Iran's Revolutionary Guard and used for ferrying weapons and fighters to Syria's military.
Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces are accused of widespread human rights atrocities in their 5½-year civil war against rebels backed by the United States.
