Pressure is mounting on Iran over its nuclear program and the United States has stepped up its push to isolate Tehran economically. On Thursday, President Barack Obama signed into law far-reaching sanctions that aim to squeeze Iran's fuel imports and deepen its international isolation.
"Since last week, our planes have been refused fueling at airports in Britain, Germany and UAE because of the sanctions imposed by America," Mehdi Aliyari, secretary of the Iranian Airlines Union, told Iran's ISNA news agency.
The claim could not be independently confirmed and was met abroad by skepticism. None of the three countries has announced any such ban, although officials could not rule out private firms refusing to fuel Iranian planes because of US measures.
A British government spokesman said it was unaware of any Iranian planes being denied fuel in Britain. The German Transport Ministry said there was no ban on refueling Iranian aircraft, and an airport in the United Arab Emirates said it was honoring contracts to fill Iranian aircraft normally.
Gala Riani at IHS Global Insight said any measure targeting the provision of fuel to Iranian flights would seem a "very strict reading" of the new US sanctions law. She said it would not necessarily be the kind of measures the legislation, which is more directed at trade in fuel, aimed to achieve.
"I'd be cautious to jump to any conclusions," she said about the Iranian news agency report.
A spokeswoman for Abu Dhabi Airports Co. (ADAC) in the UAE capital said: "We have contracts with Iranian passenger flights and continue to allow refueling."
Fuel traders from three different international firms said they had heard of no ban on jet fuel sales to Iranian aircraft at UAE airports. Said one trader: "You can't allow a plane to land and then not let it buy fuel."
Germany's Transport Ministry said the refueling of Iranian planes was not banned under EU or UN sanctions, nor was any such ban foreseeable.
Although the British authorities were not aware of any Iranian aircraft having been denied fuel, a government source said: "It is a commercial decision for companies to take how they respond to the US legislation."
