TEHRAN - Iran’s purchase of 118 Airbus passenger aircrafts is in its final stages and the deal could be completed as soon as next week, the French Transport Minister Alain Vidalies vowed on Monday in Tehran, according to the Tasnim news agency.

The agreement, initially valued at $25 billion, is subject to approval from the U.S. government’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and talks are planned next week, Vidalies said in a joint press conference with Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Abbas Akhoundi.
The deal had been inked during President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Paris on January 2016.
“We are in a very advanced stage of negotiations since the meetings should be held next week to finalize the decision,” said the French minister, who arrived Sunday on the first Air France flight to Iran in eight years.
As reported, Tehran and Paris also signed two agreements on expansion of mutual aviation and railway cooperation in the presence of the two ministers, according to the portal of the Iranian Transport and Urban Development Ministry.
The aviation contract was signed between the CEO of Iran Air Company and the CEO of Air France, while the railway agreement was inked between the deputy manager of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways and the executive director of France’s National Railway Company.
Underling both sides’ enthusiasm for increasing the volume of mutual trade, the Iranian transport minister, for his part, said that the railway contract includes renovating of three railway stations in major Iranian cities and aviation deal is aimed at renovating Iran Air as prominent air company in the region.
Akhoundi stressed that the Iranian and French administrations will fully supervise the implementation procedures of the signed aviation agreement with Airbus.

HJ/MA