The head of Iran's space agency says the country wishes to start cooperation with NASA since it is an international body and not just an American one.

Mohsen Bahrami made the announcement on Tuesday, saying "the level of our space cooperation has increased following the signing of Iran's nuclear deal, and we have inked MoUs with a number of space agencies in other countries."

"We are also hoping to hold talks with NASA and start cooperation with the space administration," he added.

Bahrami also maintained that international cooperation on the construction of Iran's remote sensing satellite is in its final stage, adding "in order to provide for our national communications satellite, we have held talks with Intelsat, Eutelsat and Asiasat, as well as a number of international operators from France, Russia, China, Korea, Japan and Italy."

"We hope that the first part of the agreement which comprises several stages will be signed this year," he added.

"It will take three years after the signing of the contract for each of the satellites to be built, and after that, we need to provide conditions for placing the satellite in orbit," he said.

Bahrami further referred to the formation of a satellite system by member states of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization, saying "we have negotiated with them to have one of the Iranian satellites placed in this system."