Reprisals feared for UK-German-UAE-Kuwait
refusal to refuel Iranian jets DEBKAfile Special Report July 5, 2010
Iran Air grounded by US sanctions
The new US sanctions covering the sale to Iran of refined oil products including gasoline and jet oil,
which
President Barak Obama signed into law Friday, July 2, have gone into action, debkafile's Iranian
and military sources report. Monday, July 5, Mehdi Aliyari, secretary of Iranian Airlines Union, said airports in
Britain, Germany, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates had refused to refuel Iranian passenger planes.
He said the cutoff affected the national carrier Iran Air and the biggest Iranian private airline Mahan Air, both
of which operate several flights to Europe. They are grounded in the middle of the summer holiday rush to and
from Iran forcing holiday-makers to resort to the few foreign airlines putting into Tehran for their overseas flights.
The Iranians were particularly put out by the refusal of the United Arab Emirates' international airport in Dubai to provide
fueling services. It is a transit hub for the many of millions of Iranians who fly to Persian Gulf and Middle East destinations.
So central is this facility to Iran's international air connections that it has two terminals, one for ordinary traffic and one
just for Iranian flights.
Pervez Sorouri, a lawmaker and member of Iranian parliament's committee on foreign policy and national security,
warned Tehran would take retaliatory action for these sanctions, especially towards the United Arab Emirates.
According to debkafile, the Iranian man in the street began to feel the rough edge of the new American measures for
the first time Monday, July 5. The cost of foreign air travel will very shortly shoot up, along with domestic flights which
are the lifeline of business activity in the country.
The rising price of gasoline is bound to affect food prices; so too
will soaring insurance rates for shipping fuel and other merchandize to the Islamic Republic.
Since Friday, Iranian leaders have been telling the public that the new US sanctions will not affect their lives and their
government has set up alternative arrangements to bypass them. But they will now have a hard time explaining away
penalties that affect the life of every individual and family.
Saturday, after learning its passenger flights would be denied fuel,
Iran's leaders held an emergency conference
to decide how to react. When President Obama signed the new sanctions Friday, our Iranian sources reported
that Tehran was bound to retaliate - either against oil shipping bound for the US, Europe and the Far East from
Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf - with immediate effect on world oil prices - or some other means.
