Monday, July 5, 2010

Iran complains that some countries refuse to refuel its passenger planes


Iran says that Britain, Germany and the United Arab Emirates are refusing to provide fuel to Iranian passenger planes.The move, which has not been confirmed, follows unilateral sanctions imposed by the US, the Isna news agency reported.
Iran is facing tougher sanctions designed to impede the development of its nuclear programme.
Tehran says its nuclear industry is for peaceful purposes but Western powers fear it is trying to develop a bomb.
"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 the news agency.
He said the national carrier Iran Air and Mahan Airlines had both run into refuelling problems.

 However, a spokeswoman for the Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC) told Reuters that it was continuing to supply Iranian jets with fuel."We have contracts with Iranian passenger flights and continue to allow refuelling," she said.
A spokesman for the UK's Civil Aviation Authority told the BBC that such a move would be down to individual fuel companies.Germany's Transport Ministry said the refuelling of Iranian planes was not banned under EU or UN sanctions.However, he could not comment on whether any individual providers were refusing to fuel Iranian aircraft.
The US sanctions prohibit the sale or provision to Iran of refined petroleum products worth more than $5m  over a year. Paul Reynolds, World affairs correspondent for the BBC News website, said it might be that fuel companies are worried that their sales over a year might add up to $5m, in which case they could face a possible ban on doing business in the US.

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