Iran ready to Ink memorandum with US on starting direct flights

Iran is ready to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the US on starting direct flights between the two countries, Head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization Hamid Reza Pahlavani announced. Iran's Civil Aviation Organization is ready for signing an MoU between the two countries, Pahlavani said on Wednesday. He also said that the Organization is now mulling resumption of direct flights between Iran and the US. Referring to the decree issued by President Hassan Rouhani on resumption of direct flights between Iran and the US, he said his organization is now studying the issue. Presently, there are a high number of international flights to and from Iran, Pahlavani added. Iran's Presidential Advisor and Acting Head of the High Council of Iranians Affairs Abroad (HCIAA) Akbar Torkan announced on Monday that President Rouhani has issued an order for studying the possibility of the resumption of direct flights between Iran and the US to facilitate visits of the two countries' nationals. "He has ordered studying the start of direct flights between Iran and the United States in order to obviate the problems facing the Iranian expatriates' visits," Torkan said, addressing a meeting here in Tehran. President Rouhani has also underlined the necessity for increasing the services provided to all Iranian expatriates living outside the country, according to Torkan. The United States and Iran broke diplomatic relations in April 1980, after Iranian students seized the United States' espionage center at its embassy in Tehran. The two countries have had tense relations ever since, but have shown willingness to attend talks to help resolve regional issues, including security in Iraq. Yet, the two countries have avoided talks on bilateral issues for the last thirty years. Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.