Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 25
By Emil Ilgar – Trend:
Iran plans to finalize the deal with France's Airbus over airplane purchase after August.
"A delegation from Airbus would arrive to Tehran by the end of August to finalize the deal, sealed during President Hassan Rouhani's trip to Paris in January," said Iran's transport minister Abbas Akhoundi, Mehr reported.
According to an existing memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Iran and Airbus signed in January, Tehran is expected to acquire 118 civil aircraft from Airbus worth $25 billion.
Akhoundi said that Iran hopes to start importing aircraft from France by the end of 2016.
Iranian official added that "we were waiting for getting permission from the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and positive news came up."
He didn't elaborate on the "positive news", but the deal will depend on Airbus getting the US export licenses, because more than 10 percent of the parts for the planes are made in the US.
Iran has also signed a MoU with Boeing and both are waiting for OFAC's allowance to finalize the deal.
