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Iran not getting sanctions relief it was promised

Iran's problems getting temporary sanctions relief could increase foreign leverage to reach a longer-term nuclear deal, but decrease confidence in Iran that the present and future US administrations will be able to grant relief in exchange for nuclear concessions.

Iran Air passenger planes sit on the tarmac of the domestic Mehrabad airport in the Iranian capital Tehran on January 15, 2013. Austrian Airlines said the previous day that it has stopped its flights to Tehran because they were not profitable any more in a decision that comes after the subsidiary of German carrier Lufthansa had already in November cut the number of weekly flights from Vienna to the Iranian capital to three. AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ MEHRI        (Photo credit should read BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Ima
Iran Air passenger planes sit on the tarmac of the domestic Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran, Jan. 15, 2013. — BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images

Iran is seeing less economic benefit than it was promised from an interim nuclear accord, in part because foreign companies and banks are unwilling to risk re-engaging the Islamic Republic on a short-term basis.

Al-Monitor has learned from an Iranian official, who spoke on condition that he not be named, that a major multinational company has refused an Iranian request for aircraft maintenance services — authorized by the Nov. 24 deal — on grounds that the company could not complete the work by the end of July. That’s when implementation of the interim nuclear accord is due to expire unless it is renewed by Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1), or it is superseded by a longer-term deal. (The company is not Boeing, which recently received a license to provide spare parts and maintenance for planes sold to Iran before the 1979 revolution.)

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