TEHRAN - Iran's Aseman Airlines said negotiations with Japan's Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. on the purchase of passenger jets are still ongoing despite its having signed a new agreement with Boeing Co. on the purchase of 30 planes.

"Having contracts with Boeing or any other aircraft maker doesn't mean that we have given up negotiations for purchasing MRJ," Aseman spokesman Amir Reza Mostafavi told Kyodo News after the agreement with Boeing was signed on Tuesday in Tehran.

The MOU also provides the airline with purchase rights for 30 additional 737 MAXs and the American plane maker is to start delivering the airplanes from 2022.

According to Iranian transport officials, negotiations with Mitsubishi to purchase 25 aircraft with the value of $500 million began last year.

Aseman has kept Japan in the list of countries which still can sell new aircraft to Iran, according to Iranian officials.

Aviation sanctions on Iran were lifted in January 2016, just months after it signed with France, Germany, China, Russia, Britain and United States an agreement on its nuclear program.

Shortly afterward, Iran inked an $18 billion deal with France-based Airbus for 46 Airbus A320 planes, 38 A330 planes and 16 A350 XWB aircraft.

It was finalized last December. That same month, state-owned Iran Air signed a $16.6 billion agreement to purchase 80 new Boeing 777 and 737 passenger planes, to be delivered over a period of 10 years.

MG