Iran studies logistics with eye to resumption of direct flights to US

The decision is seen as trying to solve transportation issues for Iranian citizens living in the US.

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON
Rouhani on the phone 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Rouhani on the phone 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani issued an order to study how to reestablish direct flights between Iran and the US, an Iranian official said Monday.
The decision is seen as trying to solve transportation issues for Iranian citizens living in the US, the Iranian Tasnim News Agency quoted Akbar Torkan, a presidential adviser and the caretaker of the supreme council for Iranian expatriates’ affairs, as stating.
“The president issued an order to study how it would be possible to establish direct flights between Iran and the United States of America in order to resolve the transportation problems of the [Iranian] compatriots residing in the US,” he said.
Torkan also said that Rouhani’s meeting on Friday with Iranians living in the US during his recent trip has led him to stress the need to provide more services for Iranian expatriates.
Rouhani spoke at the UN General Assembly last week and held a telephone conversation with US President Barack Obama on Friday as he was on his way to leave New York City.
The US broke off relations with Iran in 1980 after Iranian students seized the US embassy in Tehran.