WarSclerotic

Iranian officials accused Germany, Britain and the United Arab Emirates on Monday of refusing to refuel Iranian passenger planes due to unilateral U.S. sanctions imposed over its nuclear program, and threatened to retaliate against the move.

	Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad waves as he boards his plane on April 22, 2010
	Photo by: AP

“Since 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.

A British government spokesman said it was unaware of any Iranian planes being denied fuel in Britain. The German transport ministry said there was no ban on refuelIng Iranian aircraft, and an airport in the United Arab Emirates said it was honoring contracts to fill Iranian air craft normally.

The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority said it had not ordered companies to refuel Iranian planes – but tadded hat individual fuel forms were free to make their own decisions on the matter. The refueling of Iranian planes, she said, was not something which either EU or UN sanctions have banned.

Germany’s Transport Ministry said the refueling of Iranian planes was not banned under E.U. or UN 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.

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

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

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday signed into law far-reaching sanctions on Iran that aim to squeeze the Islamic Republic’s fuel imports and deepen its international isolation.

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

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 program. 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 refueling 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 U.A.E.”