TEHRAN -- Iran’s civil aviation chief Muhammad Muhammadi Bakhsh says the country will pursue its legal case against international plane manufacturers Airbus and ATR over their failure to supply spare parts to the Iranian airlines based on contracts signed before the United States imposed sanctions on Iran in 2018.
Muhammadi Bakhsh said that Airbus and ATR have consistently refused to honor their contractual obligations regarding the supply of spare parts to Iran under the pretext that they could face American penalties.
“We are protesting this (decision) and we will pursue the legal case as whenever the issue is raised they attribute it to the U.S. sanctions,” Muhammadi Bakhsh was quoted as saying by the ILNA news agency.
The comments come amid ongoing efforts to salvage a 2015 nuclear deal which has unraveled since the U.S. pulled out of the agreement three years ago and imposed sanctions on Iran.
The sanctions caused Airbus and ATR to suspend aircraft supply contracts with Iran just after they delivered a handful of planes to the country in 2018.
However, the two plane manufacturers have refused to supply spare parts needed to maintain and repair those planes in Iran citing the threat of American punishment for engaging in any business activity with Tehran.
The official said Airbus and ATR should treat the spare parts issue in a manner different than plane deliveries as he insisted that failure to supply the parts could cause major incidents in the Iranian civil aviation sector.
“Airbus and ATR should never use the life of people as a pretext to comply with sanction issues,” he said, adding that Iran will pursue the legal case against the two companies regardless of what happens to the future of talks between Iran and world powers to revive the nuclear deal.