First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi announced the new policy Tuesday. “We will respond in kind to Europe’s refusal to provide jet fuel to Iranian passenger planes,” he said.
Actually, Europe has not decided to cut off jet fuel supplies. But most European oil firms, as well as a Kuwaiti firm that provides jet fuel at many European airports, have ended their business with Iran. Only Total of France is believed still servicing Iranian planes in Western Europe.
None of the sanctions imposed by the UN, US and EU cut off jet fuel. The US Congress even wrote its sanctions law last summer with a specific exemption meant to prevent a fuel cut off for Iranian planes. But major fuel firms seem to fear bad publicity. BP was the first to cut off supplies; that came when BP was viewed odiously in the United States shortly after one of its oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico exploded.
Rahimi did not say when Iran would stop servicing Western planes. Nor did he name the airlines to be impacted. Presumably Air France would be unscathed if Total is still servicing Iranian aircraft.
The Islamic Republic threatened to retaliate some months ago when most oil firms cut off Iranian planes. But in the end, all Iran did was to limit supplies to British Midland Airways, the sole UK airline flying into Iran. Iran still supplied British Midland with enough fuel to leave Iran get to another airport, but not enough to get back to Europe.
Rahimi did not hint if that policy would now be extended to others.
If fuel supplies are completely cut off, European airlines might just stop flying to Iran, finding it not to be worth the effort.
Rahimi said Western sanctions were ineffective. He said Iran’s enemies sought to sanction the Iranian people but actually their sanctions boomeranged against themselves.
But if European airlines stop flying to Iran because of new Iranian sanctions, that is likely to boomerang on Iran. The people who make the flights to and from Tehran are mainly Iranian tourists and European businessmen seeking contracts in Iran. If flights are curtailed, it will be Iranian tourists and businesses that will suffer.
Rahimi announced Iran’s new policy after OMV, the largest Austrian oil firm, ceased servicing Iranian planes in Vienna last month. Most Iranian planes unable to get fuel at airports farther West had been hopping to Vienna to get a complete fill-up for the flight back to Tehran.