suppliers started cutting Iran Air off from supplies, the Islamic Republic has started to retaliate—albeit very modestly.
At Imam Khomeini International Airport, officials are refusing to fully refuel planes from the only British airline that flies into Tehran, British Midlands International.
BMI said it is still getting some fuel in Tehran, enough to fly out of Tehran to another airport where it can get a full load of jet fuel. But it said Monday it had been unable to get full loads of fuel in Tehran for about one week.
Tehran waited almost a month before retaliating. But it hasn’t applied the retaliation to other European airlines like Germany’s Lufthansa and Italy’s Alitalia, although Iran Air cannot get fuel in those countries either.
According to The Washington Post, only Air France and OMV of Austria are providing Iran Air with jet fuel in Europe.
Iran has screamed vocally that it is illegal to refuse to supply fuel—so it is doing what it insists is against the law.
Furthermore, in Iran, it is the government that has refused to supply fuel. In Europe, it is private companies that have shut the valves. The governments there have nothing to do with it.
Last week, Iran confirmed that some non-European jet fuel suppliers had stopped serving Iran Air in Asia as well as in Europe, but it says it has not canceled a solitary flight because of the fuel problem.
Iranian planes are simply flying to another city to get fueled up before returning to Iran, an approach that works but adds about 90 minutes to flight times.
Iran did not announce what non-European fuel companies had cut off jet fuel sales to Iran.