International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has warned several European countries that it is illegal to refuse to refuel Iranian passenger planes. But the ICAO says that is false.
An ICAO spokesman, Denis Chagnon, told the Iran Times. “There was no ICAO message saying countries must refuel planes.”
The spokesman said the ICAO has no policing or enforcement role and that the non-supply of fuel doesn’t violate the Chicago Convention, the international agreement covering commercial aviation.
One Iranian news outlet, PressTV, which is owned by the state, reported that the ICAO “says it has cautioned several European countries against refusing to supply Iranian passenger planes with fuel.” It reported, “The ICAO said on Friday that it has raised the issue with authorities in Britain, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. ICAO has also underscored that it will not remain silent on issues that undermine the safety of the aviation industry.”
The ICAO told the Iran Times that on November 26 it had indeed written the civil aviation authorities in each of those five countries where Iran said it was being denied fuel, but only to transmit Iran’s concerns to the authorities in those five countries.
Earlier, Reza Nakhjavani, the head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, announced that it was filing a complaint with the ICAO. Iran said that it was a violation of international law, specifically the Chicago Convention that regulates commercial air travel, to deny refueling to any commercial aircraft.
News reports have said that both BP and Royal Dutch Shell have refused to renew contracts to supply Iran Air at European airports. They say Iran Air flights to airports where no fuel is available have been stopping at other European airports where they can still get fuel from other companies. According to The Washington Post, only Air France and OMV, the Austrian national petroleum firm, are selling jet fuel to Iran Air in Europe.
While the Iranian news reports keep referring to “countries” refusing to refuel Iranian flights, the refusals all seem to be coming from companies that do not want to face any complications with the new US law that threatens sanctions on firms that provide Iran with refined oil products
Although Iran says a refusal to sell fuel is illegal, the Islamic Republic has retaliated by refusing to sell a full load of fuel to one European airline, British Midlands International. BMI said it can only buy enough fuel in Tehran to fly to the nearest airport outside Iran where it can get enough fuel to return to Britain. Iran has not said how it can justify denying fuel to an airline if it sees that as illegal.
A month ago, Farhad Par-varesh, chief executive of the state-owned Iran Air, said, “Iran is taking legal measures through appropriate channels. The matter has been raised at the International Court of Justice in The Hague and lawyers have been appointed to follow up.”
But the International Court of Justice is a forum only for countries to bring suits. Businesses and individuals are not given access to that court.
Parvaresh said the oil suppliers that have cut off supplies of fuel are in violation of the Chicago Convention, which was signed in 1944 and regulates international civil aviation.
A review of the convention text turned up no requirement for airlines to be supplied with fuel by private firms. The only specific reference to fuel is in Article 24, which says, “Fuel … on board an aircraft of a contracting state … and retained on board … shall be exempt from customs duty, inspection fees or similar national and local duties.” There is a generic provision in Article 22 that Iran Air might cite that says every signatory state “agrees to adopt all practicable measures … to facilitate and expedite navigation … and to prevent unnecessary delays … especially in the administration of the laws relating to immigration, quarantine, customs and clearance.”
But fuel is not being denied to Iran Air by any government that signed the Chicago Convention. It is being denied by corporations.
Parvaresh argued that any country that signs an air agreement allowing entry to Iran Air is obligated by that agreement to provide safe and secure flights. By implication, he extended that to an obligation to provide fuel.
Parvaresh insisted that the companies did not act on their own. “The companies were forced to refuse fuel to Iranian planes under pressure from the United States,” Parvaresh said. “These companies are under pressure and most of them, as economic institutions, are not pleased with the situation.”
No oil firm has complained of pressure from Washington, although many of them have been vehement in denouncing US sanctions in the past. The silence suggests to some that the pressure on them is coming from their own host governments.
On many occasions over the years, the Islamic Republic has complained that the United States violates the Chicago Convention by refusing to sell Iran spare parts for commercial aircraft. It has raised that issue several times before the ICAO. But the spokesman for the ICAO, which is based in Montreal, said that is also not an ICAO matter; it is simply a bilateral question that Iran must handle directly with the United States.