The US has issued a licence allowing Boeing to do business with Iran for the first time since the US embargo of 1979, a company spokesman told AFP.

The licence covers a “limited period of time” and allows Boeing only “to provide them spare parts that are for safety purposes.”

Boeing will still not be allowed to sell new planes to Iran, the spokesman said yesterday.

The licence was granted by the US Treasury Department in the context of an interim deal between world powers and Iran over its nuclear programme signed in November, the spokesman added.

At the end of February, another US company, General Electric, indicated it had requested permission to sell spare airliner parts to Iran, but so far it has not received a response.

The US and European nations have imposed severe economic sanctions on Iran in recent years aiming to pressure Tehran to reduce permanently, or at least long term, the scope of its nuclear activities to make it extremely difficult for it ever to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran has always denied any such ambition.

The sanctions were partially lifted in January, after Iran agreed to freeze a part of its contested programme.

The West and Tehran are currently negotiating a definitive agreement which would guarantee Iran’s nuclear programme would be peaceful, and would ultimately lead to all sanctions being lifted.

Washington severed diplomatic relations with Iran in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

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