Last week the Iranian regime's English language news outlets, Press TV and Fars News both gleefully reported that finally, after 34 years, direct flights between Tehran and DC were to resume. The flights are said to have been arranged between Delta Airlines and IranAir (Homa).
According to the Iranian regime's Persian-language media (omitted from the English reports) Najib Javedani-Tabrizi, a Tehran-based representative for the DC law firm Venable, LLP had represented Iran in the bilateral negotiations between Iran and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and that the final letter of agreement was being drafted. Javedani-Tabrizi said that the start of talks on the resumption of direct flights between the USA and Iran was Tehran's decision, and that Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi also welcomed the possibility of re-establishing direct flights, saying, "Launching flights is for people's welfare and we have no problems with it."
The International Relations division of the FAA denied knowledge of any such report, and Delta spokesman Anthony Black emphatically rejecting such news, asserting that, "Providing service to Iranian airports would violate sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assistance Control. What has been heard, seen or read is untrue. We have done nothing on our part to engage in any service to Iran."
Calls to Venable, LLP have so far gone unanswered.
