US President Barack Obama has said he will veto a bill approved by the House Rules Committee on 14 November that prohibits the Secretary of Treasury from authorising certain transactions by the US Export-Import (Exim) Bank in connection with the export or re-export of commercial passenger aircraft to Iran.

“The administration strongly opposes HR 5711,” a statement from the Executive Office of the President said, citing that the bill would prevent Washington from implementing the joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA).

The JCPOA was signed between Iran and six world powers, including the US, in July 2015, and nuclear-related sanctions were lifted in January following the removal of its plutonium reactor at Arak.

“The bill would undermine the ability of the US to meet our JCPOA commitments by effectively prohibiting us from licensing the sale of commercial passenger aircraft to Iran for exclusively civil end-uses, as we committed to do in the JCPOA,” the statement said.

Congress is understood to likely begin consideration of the bill on 17 November.

As an export credit agency (ECA), US Exim finances and insures export of goods and services in exchange for the creation of jobs.

HR 5711 was first introduced in July. However, the Treasury Department granted licences on 21 September to the local Boeing and France’s Airbus to deliver aircraft to Iran. This effectively cleared US financial institutions to proceed with financial transactions that would permit the sale of up to 97 combined Airbus and Boeing aircraft to Iran Air, the country’s national airline.

The Boeing transaction with Iran was first confirmed in June, with Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO) indicating that the memorandum of understanding (MoU) entails the sale of up to 100 aircraft. The deal was estimated to cost up to $25bn based on list prices for the aircraft.