Iran says Germany, UK and UAE deny fuel to its planes

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iranian officials accused Germany, Britain and the United Arab Emirates on Monday of refusing to refuel Iranian passenger planes in response to tougher U.S. sanctions over its nuclear programme.

The claim followed steps by the UAE this month to tighten its crucial role as a trading and financial lifeline for Iran. The UAE Central Bank asked financial institutions to freeze the accounts of 40 entities and an individual blacklisted by the U.N. for assisting Iran’s nuclear or missile programmes.

“Since last week, our planes have been refused fuel at . last week, our planes have been refused fuel at airports in Britain, Germany and UAE because of the sanctions imposed by America,” Mehdi Aliyari, Secretary of the Iranian Airlines Union, told Iran’s ISNA news agency.

Pressure is mounting on Iran over its nuclear programme and the United States has stepped up its push to isolate Tehran economically. On Thursday, President Barack Obama signed into law far-reaching sanctions that aim to squeeze the Islamic Republic’s fuel imports and deepen its international isolation.

The U.S. action and other measures planned by the European Union go well beyond a fourth round of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran approved on June 9.

The extent of the refuelling ban announced by Iranian officials was not immediately clear. There was no confirmation from the governments mentioned.

An airport company in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi denied that any such measure was in place. “We have contracts with Iranian passenger flights and continue to allow refuelling,” said a spokeswoman for Abu Dhabi Airports Co (ADAC).

Germany’s Transport Ministry said the refuelling of Iranian planes was not banned under EU or U.N. sanctions and that a future ban of this order was not foreseeable.

There is no ban,” a spokesman for the ministry told Reuters, adding that he could not comment on whether any individual providers were refusing to fuel Iranian aircraft.

If confirmed, the new measures will be evidence of a determined intention to make these sanctions really bite.

Gala Riani at IHS Global Insight said any such measure targeting the provision of fuel to Iranian flights would seem a “very strict reading” of the new U.S. sanctions law.

She said it would not necessarily be the kind of measures the legislation, which is more directed at trade in fuel, aimed to achieve.

“I’d be cautious to jump to any conclusions,” she said about the Iranian news agency report.

Over the past weeks a number of countries and firms have cut back on their imports of Iranian crude oil. More companies have also stopped providing Iran with refined petroleum which Tehran needs to import to meet domestic demand [ID:nLDE65R1O2]

Iran is the world’s fifth-largest oil producer, but imports various oil products for lack of sufficient refining capacity.

Unlike the U.S. measures, the U.N. sanctions stop short of targeting Iranian imports of refined products.

Western powers believe Iran is trying to build bombs under cover of a civilian nuclear programme. Tehran says the programme is only for electricity generation and medical purposes.

Aliyari said Iran Air, the national carrier, and Mahan Airlines had run into refuelling problems so far. “Refusing to provide fuel to Iranian passenger planes by these countries is a violation of international conventions,” he added.

An Iranian lawmaker said his country would retaliate in kind against countries denying fuel to its transport industry.

“Iran will do the same to ships and planes of those countries that cause problems for us,” ISNA quoted Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh as saying. “Iran should react firmly to the action taken by some countries like the UAE.”

(Additional reporting by Stanley Carvalho in Abu Dhabi and Tamara Walid, Fred Dahl and Amena Bakr in Dubai; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)