DATE:07/01/93
TITLE:MOVE IN CONGRESS WOULD HALT U.S. JETLINER SALES TO IRAN (07/01/93)
TEXT:*93070109.NEA 07/01/boeing,ge jet sales to iran/#mcj yb kf
*NEA409 07/01/93 *
MOVE IN CONGRESS WOULD HALT U.S. JETLINER SALES TO IRAN
(Congressmen call on president to stop deal) (600)
By M. C. Jaspersen
USIA Staff Writer
Washington -- Members of Congress July 1 called on the Clinton
administration to halt a planned sale of U.S.-made commercial jets to Iran,
saying it is time for the U.S. government to learn from its previous
mistakes.
In a letter addressed to the president, more than 140 members of the House
of Representatives state that "If we are to publicly brand Iran for its
support of terrorist activity and proliferation of dangerous weapons, the
United States must not sell these aircraft to Iran."
Releasing their letter to President Clinton at a news conference here,
Representative Peter Deutsch (Democrat of Florida) said he learned of the
plan to sell the jets from a letter President Clinton wrote to Senator
Jesse Helms (Republican of North Carolina) to notify the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee that the administration is contemplating changing the
classification of Boeing 737s from their presently designated
"joint-military-civilian-use" to a "civilian-use" status, thereby making
such a sale permissible.
Deutsch noted that within one day, he and other colleagues had gotten more
than 140 other congressmen to sign a letter asking Clinton not to approve
the jet sales to Iran.
Representative Jim Saxton (Republican of New Jersey) cautioned that the
administration must not forget the lessons of Iraq. "We were surprised by
that country's development and eventual invasion of Kuwait because we were
not paying attention to the technology...that was flowing to Iraq from
around the world," he said.
Saxton said he opposes the sale of "dual-use technology to Iran as a matter
of security and as a matter of conscience."
"The United States should not be in the business of sharing its technology,
craftsmanship, and engineering with the lead sponsor of world terrorism....
Iran is not a friend," he stressed.
1
Iran contracted to purchase the jets -- 737s manufactured by Boeing using
General Electric engines -- in September 1992, and the U.S. manufacturers
applied to the U.S. Department of Commerce for a license to go ahead with
the sale. Both companies have been hit hard by recession and recent
military spending cuts.
They applied for a special export license, because under U.S.law -- the 1992
Iran-Iraq Non-Proliferation Act -- the Department of Commerce would have to
deny export licenses to any company seeking to do business with Iran.
Also, since the 1979 Iranian revolution, the United States has restricted
the sale of dual-use technology to Iran.
Citing Secretary of State Warren Christopher's recent remarks condemning
Iran's heightened terrorist activities, Representative Charles Schumer
(Democrat of New York) said, "President Clinton is considering a decision
that will affect the prospect of whether Iran...will soon have the means to
be an even greater threat to world security."
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