Iran interested in joint venture with Oman

Abbas Ahmad Akhondi, Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development met H E Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs in Tehran on Sunday.

“The ministry has specific proposals for Oman in this regard, including the creation of an international aircraft leasing company and establishing a joint (venture) airline,” Akhondi was quoted by Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

“Iran is looking for setting up an international aircraft leasing company with the help of big international firms and the company is expected to be created in the near future with its headquarters either in Iran or any other country,” Akhondi said.

H E Dr Ali bin Masoud bin Ali al Sunaidy, Oman’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, who was part of the delegation to Tehran, added that the sultanate is also willing to widen aviation ties with Iran in terms of increasing the number of flights.

“In view of increased Iran-Europe flights in the post-sanction era, we intend to cooperate with Iran over formation of new flight routes for long-range, regional and internal flights,” he said.

H E Dr Sunaidy added that Oman has assigned 150,000sq m to the Iranian Embassy in Muscat, which can be used for setting up logistics companies by Iran. Akhondi said that Iran is ready to create a corridor linking Oman, Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan and invited the sultanate to join another recently established corridor linking Iran, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

H E Alawi said that the Iran-Oman-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan transport corridor needs some technical reforms and through this initiative, Islamic countries will be able to benefit from ports in both Oman and Iran. He stressed on the importance of boosting ties with Tehran in the area of ports, like links between Chabahar and Oman's ports. H E Dr Sunaidy said the sultanate is interested in Iran's participation in developing Omani ports.