Iran in Talks with EU Firm to Purchase Navigation Equipment
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran is holding talks with a major European company on purchasing navigation equipment, Managing Director of the Iranian Airports Company (IAC) announced on Monday.
“Recently, a major European company that produces 35% of the world’s navigation aids has entered into talks with us. 6 European experts travelled to Iran to hold negotiations. They emphasized that after selling the navigation equipment, the company will provide after-sale services for 10 years,” Mohammad Ali Ilkhani told reporters during a press conference in Tehran on Monday.
He went on to say that during this Iranian year, which started on March 21, four radar systems and three instrument landing systems (ILSs) will be bought from the European company and will be imported to Iran.
Purchasing the navigation equipment directly from the manufacturer would reduce the country’s expenses, Ilkhani noted.
“Before the Geneva agreement, we used to provide the navigation equipment for the IAC through intermediaries,” he said.
On November 24, 2013, Iran and six world powers signed an interim nuclear deal in the Swiss city of Geneva.
According to the breakthrough agreement (the Joint Plan of Action), which came into effect on January 20, the world powers agreed to suspend some non-essential sanctions and to impose no new nuclear-related bans in return for Tehran's decision to suspend its 20% enrichment for a period of six months.
In recent years, the US and its Western allies have slapped cruel sanctions on Iran under the pretext that the country's peaceful nuclear program might have a covert drive towards acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.
Iranian officials assert that the US and some other Western states use the nuclear issue as an excuse to pile up pressure on the Islamic Republic which has faced the US-led sanctions for the past several decades following the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in the country.
Iran, a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, considers nuclear enrichment an inalienable right, and has on numerous occasions reiterated that it wants nuclear energy for purely peaceful purposes, and that it is on religious, ethical and practical grounds opposed to nuclear weapons.