Image copyright AP State airline Iran Air says it has signed a deal to buy 80 passenger planes from US aircraft maker Boeing.
National news agency IRNA reported the flag carrier’s chairman as saying that the 10-year deal included 50 of the 737 aircraft and 30 of the 777 planes.
It is the biggest US-Iran deal since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
IRNA also quoted Fletcher Barkdull, a Boeing regional director, as saying the deal was worth $ 16.6bn and had been approved by the US government.
The deal, which follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two parties in June, will help Iran modernise and expand its ageing commercial aircraft fleet.
In September, the US government granted permission to Boeing and European rival Airbus to sell billions of dollars’ worth of aircraft to Iran.
It came after the US and other nations agreed last year to lift sanctions on Iran, in exchange for it ceasing its nuclear activities.
President-elect Donald Trump has criticised that nuclear deal, and Congressional Republicans are making efforts to counter the accord.
Last month the House of Representatives, the lower house of the US Congress, passed a bill designed to halt the sale of commercial aircraft to Iran.
If approved it would prevent the US Treasury from issuing licences that American banks would require to finance sales of commercial aircraft.
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