Turning to the possibility of bartering Iranian oil with Russia’s Sukhoi aircraft, he said, “other airline companies can embark on purchasing Sukhoi aircrafts either with Russian or western engine but the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development has no plan to hold talks with this Russian aircraft mfg. company in this regard.”

He pointed to the fate of contracts for purchasing airplane from three leading plane manufacturing companies including [Airbus, Boeing and ATR] at the condition that these companies have been banned for selling plane to Iran under US sanctions on Iran, he said, “we prefer to keep plane purchase contracts from Airbus, Boeing and ATR plane mfg. companies in place without any change until new conditions are provided.”

After US pullout from JCPOA, the three plane manufacturing companies [Airbus, Boeing and ATR] have necessarily been obliged to abolish their contracts concluded with Iran, he said, adding, “for this purpose, we are currently negotiating with these companies.”

Under the US pressure, these three plane manufacturing companies are interested in abolishing their contracts with Iran’s national flag carrier ‘IranAir’, he emphasized.

Although the aforementioned three companies are not necessarily obliged to pay compensations to Iran for canceling contract concluded with Iran, they [Airbus, Boeing and ART] will sustain a heavy loss financially in the respect, Fakhrieh Kashan maintained.

The deputy minister of Roads and Urban Development pointed to the possibility of delivery of two ART planes to IranAir and said, “presently, representatives of Franco-Italian aircraft manufacturer ‘ATR’ are negotiating with Iran in order to receive waiver from the US sanctions on Iran in this respect.”