US Blocks Sale of Sukhoi Superjet Aircraft to Iran

The US Treasury has denied an export certificate for the sale of Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft to Iran as the Russian passenger jet contains more than 10% US-made parts.

“However, it appears that due to the lack of license issued by OFAC (the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control), the arrival of the planes is out of question for now,” secretary of Association of Iranian Airlines Maqsoud Asadi Samani told Iranian Labor New Agency (ILNA) Tuesday.

Iran Air Tours had recently signed an initial agreement to buy 20 Superjets, while another Iranian airline had reached a draft agreement to lease three planes, Samani said.

Superjets have more than 10 percent in American parts, the threshold for needing US Treasury approval. Russian officials had said Sukhoi was working on reducing the number of US parts in order to win an Iranian order for up to 100 aircraft.

However, the state-owned Russian company “was unable to do that,” Samani said, adding the replacement of American parts would probably be time-consuming.