Britain, Germany, UAE Deny Refusing Fuel To Iran Planes

(NewsCore) - An Iranian official said that airports in Britain, Germany and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had started to refuse to refuel passenger planes from Iran but the reports were denied in all three countries on Monday.

"Since last week, after the passing of the unilateral law by America and the sanctions against Iran, airports in England, Germany, the UAE have refused to give fuel to Iranian planes," said Mehdi Aliyari, secretary of the Iranian Airlines Union, quoted by ISNA news agency.

Aliyari said their refusal has so far impacted Iran Air, the national carrier, and a leading private airline, Mahan Air, as both operate several flights to Europe.

Heshmatollah Falahat-Pisheh, an MP and member of the Iranian parliament's committee on foreign policy and national security, warned of retaliatory action by Tehran, especially towards the United Arab Emirates.

"We should definitely do the same thing to the Emirates, Britain and Germany whose planes need to be refueled in Iran," he told ISNA.

But in London, a British government spokesman said: "At present Her Majesty’s Government is not aware of any occasions when fuel has been refused in the U.K."

And a Dubai airport spokesman said Iranian planes were still able to refuel. "Iranian planes traveling to and from Dubai through Dubai International Airport still enjoy the refueling service," he said.

The General Civil Aviation Authority which oversees the sector in the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a member, said it did not have information of any such ban on Iranian planes.

However, a source close to the aviation sector in the United Arab Emirates told AFP there was a problem with an international fuel supplier.

"A servicing company which provides fueling at several airports around the world has refused to provide Iranian planes with fuel, including at UAE terminals," he said.

"The Iranian air operators have alternative sources for refueling at UAE airports," he added, requesting anonymity.

The German office of Iran Air, meanwhile, appeared to dismiss the reports from Tehran.

"It is not correct," Mohammad Reza Rajabi, the head of the airline's operations in Germany, said.

He said flights and fueling services had continued without interruption in Germany.

The German transport ministry said in a statement that neither U.S. nor United Nations sanctions covered the refueling of Iranian passenger planes.

Last Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law the toughest ever U.S. sanctions on Iran, which he said would strike at Tehran's capacity to finance its nuclear program and deepen its isolation.

The measures, on top of new U.N. and European sanctions, aim to choke off Iran's access to imports of refined petroleum products like gasoline and jet fuel, and to curb its access to the international banking system.

On June 9, the U.N. Security Council imposed a fourth set of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, followed by unilateral punitive measures by the European Union and later by the United States.

World powers led by Washington suspect Tehran is making nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian atomic program. Iran says its nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes.

(This article is provided by NewsCore, which aggregates news from around News Corporation.)