 TEHERAN — Iran is set to buy the Air France Boeing 747 jumbo that flew revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini back to Teheran from exile in 1979, a government newspaper said yesterday. Sanctions imposed by the United States prevent Iran from buying Western aircraft, but the Iran newspaper said the plane was no longer fit to be used for commercial purposes and that the clerical regime only wanted it as a souvenir.| Also could be used to deliver a nuke. |
“After contacts with France, Iran is set to buy the plane that carried the founder of the Islamic republic the February 1, 1979, as the symbol of this magnificent day,” the newspaper said. The report did not say if a deal had already been signed, or how much the Islamic republic would pay. | Or who would be piloting the thing. |
Although IranÂ’s US-backed shah had already fled the country when Khomeini returned from exile in the small French town of Neauphle-le-Chateau, the 747Â’s landing is seen as the true start of the Islamic revolution. Archive film of the landing of the 747 is still regularly shown on Iranian state television. |