Roundup: Iran urges U.S. to remove financial obstacles for aircraft sales

The Iranian minister of roads and urban development said Sunday that the financial obstacles imposed by the United States against the Islamic republic discourage the aircraft producers to sell the passenger planes to Iran, official IRNA news agency reported.

Iran has no serious problem in providing the required funds for the purchase of passenger planes, and it can keep the negotiations with the producers of the aircrafts to the end, Abbas Akhoundi told an aviation meeting in the capital Tehran.

On Sunday, the meeting named Iran Aviation Finance Summit kicked off at Imam Khomeini International Airport to seek financial solutions to the country's international aircraft deals.

In the two-day summit, business and financial representatives of 150 aviation companies, banks, airport operators, investors and infrastructure developers will explore financial solutions for purchasing passenger planes and developing aviation infrastructure, Press TV reported.

According to the report, Iran has placed orders with Airbus and Boeing to buy 200 passenger planes worth some 50 billion U.S. dollars, but the country has difficulties in financing because major international banks are reluctant to process the transactions for fear of possible penalties from the United States.

"All the necessary institutions for global competition in the aviation sector are taking shape in the country," and Iran is eager to expand its aviation sector, Akhoundi told the meeting.

Any negotiations with the plane producers depend on a much-delayed move by the U.S. Treasury Department to lift restrictions in deals with the Islamic republic, said Akhoundi.

Tehran hopes the U.S. Treasury Department would soon facilitate purchase of planes by the country, the Iranian minister was quoted as saying by Press TV.

The strong participation by aviation companies in the meeting shows that all businesses in this industry want the United States to move ahead with approving sales of planes to Iran, he added.

On Sunday, Iran's Deputy Roads and Urban Development Minister Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan said in the meeting that the U.S. Treasury Department will soon approve licenses for Airbus and Boeing to provide the Islamic republic with the planes, Press TV reported.

"We are expecting the approval (by the U.S. Treasury Department) by the end of September," Fakhrieh was quoted as saying.

Any failure by the United States to approve the licenses would breach a nuclear deal that Iran sealed with the world powers last year, he stressed.

The deal, reached between Iran and world powers in July last year to settle the former's controversial nuclear program, was implemented in January.

The deal makes Iran scrap major part of its nuclear program in return for the removal of Western and international sanctions.

The United States has still its sanction on Iran over the alleged violations of human rights and support for terrorism, which Iran denies.

Also, Washington has recently blacklisted some Iranian and foreign entities for being involved in Iran's missile program.

In addition, Since January, the U.S. Congress has made it clear that those sanctions are there to stay. These restrictions bar American companies from doing business with the Iranian government or with any entity that has links to Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

Besides, U.S. financial institutions are barred from dollar transactions involving Iran, a major hurdle for all global companies, since countless transactions pass through a U.S. financial intermediary at some point.

These continued restrictions have raised concerns among the international companies that they could fall victim of the U.S. law if they invest in Iran.

The average age of Iran's aviation fleet stands at 22 years, and Iran needs to purchase new planes, deputy director of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization (CAO), Mohammad Khodakarami, said earlier.

Iran has announced its need for about 400 passenger planes in the next decade to modernize its aging fleet.

Experts said the U.S.-imposed sanctions against Iran over the past years, which prevented its allies from selling aircraft or aircraft parts to the country, have undermined safety standards within Iran's civil and military aviation fleet with the likelihood of further air disasters. Endit