Iran-US direct flights will help Iranian expats: Iran MP

A senior Iranian lawmaker says the resumption of direct flights between Tehran and Washington will definitely facilitate the visits of Iranian expatiates residing in the United States.

“The resumption of direct Tehran-Washington flight will be surely of great assistance to Iranian expatriates living in the US,” chairman of Iran Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on Tuesday.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has ordered aviation authorities to examine the possibility of restarting direct flights between Iran and the United States.

Akbar Torkan, the acting head of the High Council of Iranian Affairs Abroad, said on Monday that Rouhani has issued an order to study the option of resuming direct flights between the two countries in order to reduce the problems of Iranian nationals residing in the US.

More than one million Iranian nationals live in the United States. Direct flights between Iran and America were halted after Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979.

In a ground-breaking event, Rouhani received a call from US President Barack Obama on September 27 as he was in a car heading to the John F. Kennedy International Airport to fly back to Tehran.

The phone conversation was the first direct communication between the Iranian and US presidents since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.