Third plane bought under sanctions deal arrives in Iran

An Airbus A330 airliner arrived in Tehran Saturday, the third of 200 Western-built passenger aircraft ordered by IranAir following the lifting of sanctions on Iran last year. The long-haul A330-200 landed at Tehran's Mehrabad airport, the official news agency IRNA reported, as flag-carrier IranAir tries to renew its decaying fleet. The aircraft joins another A330 and a smaller A321 delivered to Iran earlier this year by Airbus. Iran's pragmatist president Hassan Rouhani's success in ending international sanctions by reaching a deal with world powers has also intensified tensions ahead of May presidential elections with hardliners, who have criticized the deal for a lack of tangible economic benefits since sanctions were lifted. Iran has ordered 100 airliners from Airbus and 80 from Boeing and is in talks to finalize a deal to buy 20 turboprop aircraft from ATR, jointly owned by Airbus and Italy's Leonardo Finmeccanica. The country has not directly purchased a Western-built plane in nearly 40 years, the one exception being the sale of an Airbus to replace one shot down by the US Navy in 1988.<br/>