Iran blames air industry troubles on U.S. sanctions

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran acknowledged on Tuesday that its air industry was suffering from U.S. sanctions and warned there will be more air disasters if sanctions on purchase of U.S.-made planes were not lifted.

Minister of Transportation Ahmad Khorram made the comments in parliament responding to questions on a string of air disasters in recent years that have claimed hundreds of lives.

"If sanctions on purchase of (Boeing) planes and spare parts are not lifted, problems of Iran's air industry will exacerbate," Khorram said in a speech to lawmakers on state Tehran radio.

Several of Iran's aging Boeing and Airbus planes have been grounded because of technical problems and lack of spare parts, Khorram said, warning that he should not be held responsible if more planes crashed in Iran.

"Because of lack of proper planes, there is no possibility of replacing them if there are technical problems. If such fundamental issues are not resolved, we will meet more serious problems and I should not be held responsible," the minister said.

Khorram said Iran's aging fleet was more than two decades old and has "reached a crisis point."

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran has been forced to supplement its fleet of Boeing and European-made Airbus airliners with planes bought or leased from the former Soviet Union.

Iran has a total of about 80 working passenger planes, a veteran Iran pilot told the Associated Press speaking on condition of anonymity. About 30 to 40 of those are Russian-made Tupolovs, 10 others are Fokkers from the Netherlands, and the rest are Airbus and aging Boeings. In the mid 1990s, Iran purchased two or three Airbus planes.

A string of air disasters during the past four years involving Russian-built airliners has caused an uproar in Iran.

In February, 119 passengers and crew died aboard Iranian Airlines Flight 956 when a Tupolov plane slammed into a snow-covered mountain in western Iran.

"If we interact with the world, most of our problems will be resolved," Khorram said without naming the United States.

He deliberately steered clear of openly call for talks with the United States to lift the sanctions after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in May that any talks with America would be both "treason and stupidity."

Trade between Iran and the United States has been frozen under sanctions that Washington has maintained on Iran since the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by militant students.

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