US to OK Iran’s plane purchases

Iran says it has been told that the US Treasury Department will approve licenses for global aviation giants such as Airbus and Boeing to export planes to the country within the next weeks.

“Today we are expecting that (approval) by the end of September for Boeing, Airbus and ATR,” Iran’s Deputy Roads and Urban Development Minister Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan told the CAPA Iran Aviation Finance Summit in Tehran.

Fakhrieh Kashan emphasized that the Treasury approval was expected to be issues by the end of August and warned that any failure by the US to approve the licenses would breach a nuclear deal that Iran sealed with the P5+1 group of countries – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany – last year.

On a related front, Iran’s Roads and Urban Development Minister Abbas Akhoundi told reporters that Tehran the Islamic Republic hopes that the US Treasury would soon move to facilitate purchases of planes by the country.

Akhoundi further emphasized that the strong participation by aviation companies in the CAPA event shows that all businesses in this industry want the US to move ahead with approving sales of planes to Iran.

The Iranian minister further emphasized that Tehran has no problems in providing the required funds for its planned purchases of planes.  He added that the country is ready to proceed with other aviation companies over purchases of planes.

Any new negotiation with the companies, Akhoundi emphasized, will nonetheless depend on a much-delayed move by the US Treasury to lift restrictions in dealing with the Islamic Republic.