An Iran Air Boeing 747. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

A US federal judge ruled this week that manufacturing giant Boeing must produce its $16 billion contract with Iran Air, a historic agreement made possible by the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, in response to discovery requests filed by victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel.

The family of Shlomo Leibovitch, the lead plaintiff in a group of 21 family members, won a $32 million award for a Palestinian Islamic Jihad attack that killed his brother-in-law and maimed his daughter in 2003, Courthouse News reported on Wednesday.

As part of the family’s ongoing attempt to collect on its judgment against Iran, Leibovitch served Boeing with discovery requests seeking to identify Iranian assets being held by the Chicago-based aerospace company.

Specifically, the requests seek information about the $16 billion contract between Boeing and Iran Air for 80 commercial airplanes, a deal made possible by the 2015  nuclear agreement. Boeing has so far refused to produce any documents responsive to Leibovitch’s request.

The Leibovitch family and others sued the Obama administration in 2015 when the US joined the European Union, the UK, Russia and China in signing the JCPOA, as the Iran nuclear deal is formally known.

In particular, the US agreed to allow the sale of commercial aircraft to Iran. The Boeing-Iran Air deal is the first major commercial transaction between American and Iranian companies since the Islamist Revolution of 1979.

Earlier this month, The Jerusalem Post reported that US President Donald Trump was personally opposed to the Boeing deal with Iran, based on evidence that ostensibly civilian Iranian airline companies have ferried weapons to terrorist groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon —  a violation of both US law and the terms of the JCPOA.