Representatives of Airbus and Boeing will visit Tehran this week to try and advance stalled deals for Iran’s purchase of civilian aircraft, according to an Iranian minister.
Abbas Akhoundi, the Road and Urban Development Minister, said legal issues will be discussed over the purchase of 112 planes from Airbus and purchase and lease of 109 from Boeing.
“After completing the legal talks, [we will] enter technical negotiations,” Akhoundi explained.
The $25 billion Airbus deal was announced in January, just after the implementation of the July 2015 nuclear deal, as President Rouhani visited France. The Boeing agreement, also valued at up to $25 billion, followed in the summer.
However, both deals were held up by the need for US licenses under ongoing sanctions legislation. While Airbus is French-owned, its planes have American components, and members of the US Congress threatened Boeing with new laws to prohibit any use of Government funds for the licenses.
Last week, Iran said it was cutting its Airbus order from 118 to 112 planes, as six could not be delivered by the end of 2016.
But on Wednesday, as US and Iranian leaders were at the UN General Assembly in New York, Airbus and then Boeing announced that they had received the necessary permissions from the Office of Foreign Assets Control for initial deliveries.
The licenses cover the first 17 Airbus planes. Boeing did not specify how many aircraft it could provide.
