Tehran, Iran, September 17
By Mehdi Sepahvand –- Trend:
Iran and Airbus have reached agreements over the price of some aircraft that the country is going to buy, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Transport Asqar Fakhriyeh Kashan said.
The agreement goes that Iran will purchase the aircraft about 40 to 50 percent under the price stated in catalogues, he said, Taadol Newspaper reported September 17.
His statements come after the government was attacked by critics when Airbus announced a month ago that it had increased its prices.
Iran and Airbus agreed over the purchase of 118 aircraft back in January. However, there has been a lot of controversy whether the deal will be carried out regarding a set of US sanctions on Iran that restrict the use of the dollar as well as any product that is originated from the US in business deals with Iran.
“Regarding the financial part of the deal, there was the problem with the final prices as well as how to raise the fund and transfer the money, all of which were solved after several rounds of negotiations, with the result that we will have no more financial talks with Airbus,” the Iranian official stated.
The government has been under a lot of domestic pressure after its January nuclear deal with the world powers. Right-wing activists say the deal has changed nothing because Iran is still unable to carry out international business transactions even after nuclear-related sanctions on Iran have been removed.
If President Hassan Rouhani manages to materialize the Airbus deal, he will have given his critics a hard blow, especially as Iran is preparing for another round of presidential elections in mid-2017 when Rouhani is expected to run for a second term.
“The latest agreement would have it that the time for paying Airbus for the aircraft will be 18 years,” Kashan noted.
“Next week Airbus representatives will visit Tehran where we will talk about the legal aspects of the deal. There are also the technical considerations which need to be finalized.”
Kashan had earlier said that Iran would place no banking bilateral ties for purchasing the aircraft.
He had also said that the financer of the deal was determined, but it could not be named right away.
Iran reached another agreement with Boeing in June. But it was later announced that a deal would be possible to carry out only after it was permitted by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The mere prospects of the deals have benefited the two companies. Shortly after the agreements with Iran were made, the value of Boeing’s shares on the stock market jumped meaningfully.
Also seeing the positive impact, Airbus increased its prices by about 1.1 percent, with the result that its most economical aircraft, the A318, was priced $1.75 million.
Tehran wants to buy up to 500 aircraft over the next decade to rejuvenate its aging fleet.