Iran hits western airlines with Tehran tit-for-tat fuel ban

First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi is reported in the Tehran Times as saying   “Recently fuel supply for Iranian passenger planes flying to Europe was stopped. Now the question is if they (West) have problems with the Iranian government why do they deprive the people of their rights. Iran decided immediately to strike back and banned supply of fuel to Western passenger planes landing in Iran,” he said.

Last week President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned countries that refrain from supplying fuel to Iranian planes of the dire consequences of their action, stressing that Iran will take action against such moves, Fars News Agency reported. “Countries that resort to such moves would suffer,” he said at a press conference in Tehran.

A number of European refuellers have stopped supplying to Iranian companies under political pressure. Two refuellers OMV and Total continued to supply Iranian carriers.

To get around the boycott, Iranian airlines landing in Europe would take a short hop after takeoff to another airfield where they could get a full load of fuel from OMV or Total in order to make the flight back to Tehran.  The interim stops were understood to be Vienna, where OMV provided fuel, and Cologne, where Total provided fuel. These interim stops added about 90 minutes to the flight time.  Iran Air makes scheduled flights to 11 European cities.

The latest trouble began on March 28 when Austrian energy company OMV said it would no longer fuel Iran Air planes at Vienna International Airport.

When asked if   Total would continue to  provide fuel to the Iranian airline, the company refused to say whether it would halt supplies, and according to Iranian media implied it was continuing to service Iranian aircraft and will continue to do so.