Initial news reports made it sound like Hungary was enforcing a ban on Salehi visiting Europe—a ban that was lifted when Salehi ceased to run Iran’s nuclear program and became foreign minister instead.
But later it emerged that Salehi was due to fly aboard one of the Iranian planes that has been barred from European airspace for safety reasons.
Salehi had been planning to attend a meeting in the Netherlands of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). He had not boarded the plane before it was denied overflight permission.
After the plane was denied overflight rights, the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) said the Foreign Ministry summoned the Hungarian ambassador to explain why Salehi had been “insulted.” ISNA reported the Hungarians said there had been “technical problems” and the Foreign Ministry labeled that “unconvincing.”
Later, however, the daily Sharq said it had queried the Hungarian Foreign Ministry and received an emailed reply that said, “The aircraft that the Iranian foreign minister planned to use is on the list of banned aircraft cited by the European Commission for flight safety reasons. Accordingly, its entry into EU airspace cannot be permitted.” The email added that Iran had requested overflight rights one day before the planned flight, instead of the standard 15 days in advance.
Salehi is on the EU list of Iranian officials whose entry into the EU is banned for his work on Iran’s nuclear program before he became foreign minister earlier this year. When Salehi became foreign minister, the EU foreign ministers decided to authorize his travel to the EU on official business, but refused to remove him from the sanctions list itself.
For more than a year, the EU has barred two-thirds of Iran Air’s aircraft from EU airspace for failure to meet EU safety standards. Many aircraft from other airlines—and many entire airlines—are also barred from EU airspace. The question that has not been answered is why Iran Air provided Salehi with a plane it knew had been barred long ago from the EU.
The Foreign Ministry has not explained why it found “unconvincing” the explanation from the Hungarians that the aircraft has long been banned from EU airspace.