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Sunday 24 Jan 2016 - 14:03 Makkah mean time-14-4-1437
Iran's Transport Minister Akhoundi (Image from Internet)
Tehran (IINA) – Iran's Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi said Sunday that his country will sign a contract this week to buy 114 Airbus planes from France, during a visit to Paris by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, AFP reported.
Akhoundi was quoted by Iranian media as saying that the deal "will be signed between Iran Air and Airbus" when Rouhani is in Paris on Wednesday as part of his first official European visit.
Iran desperately needs to modernize its ageing passenger fleet, which has only 150 operational planes out of more than 250, according to Akhoundi.
"We have been negotiating for 10 months" for the purchase of planes but "there was no way to pay for them because of banking sanctions," Iranian state media quoted Akhoundi as saying. "We need 400 long- and mid-range and 100 short-range planes," he added.
Rouhani's visit to Italy and France on January 25-27 follows the implementation of a nuclear deal with world powers that curbs Tehran's atomic activities in exchange for the lifting of punishing economic sanctions.
AB/IINA
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