Boeing this week disclosed that it had reached an agreement with Iran to provide airplane parts to the state-owned Iran Air, according to reports published Thursday citing the company’s regulatory filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Both Boeing and General Electric had earlier this year received licenses from the Treasury Department to export parts to Iran.

The Wall Street Journal noted:

Although Boeing hasn’t signed a final deal on specific sales to Iran, the agreement shows that major American companies are starting to benefit from a softening of relations between Iran and the West.

Analysts have for months speculated that scaling back sanctions on Tehran would spark a “feeding frenzy” that would further erode the sanctions regime. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had in February bragged that Iran was “open for business,” despite statements from numerous Obama administration officials – including Treasury Department Under Secretary David Cohen and State Department Under Secretary Wendy Sherman – to the contrary.

Former administration officials have in recent weeks blasted the White House for allowing the sanctions regime to weaken – former Obama administration non-proliferation point man  and current president of United Against Nuclear Iran Gary Samore last week called on the administration to among other things assert that “the uncertainty surrounding these nuclear negotiations makes the business climate in Iran far too risky for responsible businesses to return” and “agree on decisive sanctions that would constitute a virtual economic blockade of Iran should Iran fail to agree to an acceptable deal over the term of the extended negotiation.”

Meanwhile, Iran announced Wednesday that nuclear talks between the Islamic republic and the P5+1, which were extended four months past the July 20 expiry of the interim Joint Plan of Action (JPA), would resume at the beginning of September.

[Photo: Global Panorama / Flickr]