FOREIGN POLICY/IRAN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump, who has never made a secret of his hostility toward Iran, called recently for a grand regional strategy among Sunni nations to isolate the country. But Tehran received that threat with surprising equanimity because, in practice, the Trump administration has shown a willingness to do business with the country…
In what seemed to be a response to the arms deal, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Saturday that such purchases would lead to nothing…
Tough talk from both sides, but back in Iran, they are awaiting the delivery of a fleet of American-made Boeing airliners, the result of two deals worth $22 billion for the United States company. The most recent contract between the plane maker and the Iranian airline Iran Aseman was signed two months after President Trump was sworn into office.
Mr. Trump, whose America First campaign was based in part on the promise of reviving industrial employment, was apparently not eager to kill an order estimated to create 18,000 jobs.”
-Thomas Erdbrink, “As Iran and U.S. Leaders Trade Barbs, Big Deals Proceed,” The New York Times online, May 28, 2017