TEHRAN (FNA) - Head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization Reza Nakhjavani on Saturday downplayed the sanctions imposed by the U.S. on the country's aviation industry, saying that Iran has witnessed no plane crash incident due to the boycotts.

""The U.S. embargo on the import of planes to Iran has been the cause of no plane crash in Iran by now since all planes start their flight based on standard principles,"" Nakhjavani told reporters in a press conference here in Tehran, reminding that such principles would prevent faulty planes from flying.
Meantime, he blasted U.S. sanctions against Iran's aviation industry as an inhumane act which resembles boycott of medicine supplies to a country.
Iran witnessed two air crashes recently. The first incident happened when a Tupolev-154M crashed shortly after take-off from Tehran en route to the Armenian capital of Yerevan on July 15, killing all 168 passengers onboard.
Ten days later, 16 people were killed and 21 others were injured when an Aria Air plane crash-landed in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
Moscow and Tehran are negotiating the details of a joint project to build 100 passenger carriers of the Tupolev Tu-204 series in Iran.
First deputy of the Tupolev aircraft manufacturer Sergey Galperin said in April that the federation of Russian aircraft manufacturers and Iranian Aerospace Industries Organization would carry out the project.
The Tupolev Tu-204 is a twin-engine medium range Russian airliner capable of carrying 212 passengers. First introduced in 1989, it is considered to be the equivalent to the Boeing 757.
This is not Iran's first attempt at assembling passenger planes. After purchasing the production license for 100 Antonov An-140 from Ukraine in 2000, Iran built its first Iran-140 passenger plane in 2003.