Iran Warns of Tough Reaction to Jet Fuel Boycott

Tehran warned on Saturday that any effort by the western countries to block the supply of jet fuel to Iranian airliners under the guise of unilateral sanctions will be reciprocated seriously.

“It has been foreseen in the rules and regulations of the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran that we will not give jet fuel to those countries which refrain from supplying us with the fuel in a reciprocal move,” Director-General of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport Morteza Dehqan told reporters.

He blasted those countries which refrain from supplying Iran with jet fuel as violators of human rights, and expressed the hope that they would withdraw their decision for imposing such embargoes on the Iranian people.

Tehran had earlier warned that any effort by the western countries to block the supply of jet fuel to the Iranian airliners would be reciprocated seriously.

“If these policies (by the western countries) continue, reciprocal action will be taken against any firm or country which has embarked on such a move,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said in May.

Mehman-Parast’s remarks came after a spokesman for the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) of Switzerland Anton Kohler announced in May that the planes of Iran’s state-owned airline will not be allowed to refuel at the Geneva airport although weekly Tehran-Geneva flights have not been cancelled.

FOCA is responsible for aviation development and the supervision of civil aviation activities in Switzerland.

The US Senate earlier this year passed a legislation to expand sanctions on foreign companies that invest in Iran’s energy sector and those foreign companies that sell refined petroleum to Iran or help develop its refining capacity.

The bill, which later received the approval of the House of Representatives, says companies that continue to sell gasoline and other refined oil products to Iran will be banned from receiving Energy Department contracts to deliver crude to the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The bill was then signed into law by US President Barack Obama.