BRUSSELS, July 6: The EU banned most of Iran Air’s jets from flying to Europe because of safety concerns, emphasizing Tuesday that the move was not related to UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. The 27-nation bloc also relaxed restrictions on two airlines from Indonesia and put a Suriname airline on its blacklist of carriers the EU believes do not meet international safety standards.
The list of 278 airlines — mostly small operations from Africa and Asia — was established in 2006 and is updated regularly. Iran Air’s Boeing 727s and 747s, along with its Airbus 320s, have been placed on the EU blacklist following a safety audit, Transport Commission spokeswoman Helen Kearns said.
But Kearns denied that the move, which affects two-thirds of Iran Air’s fleet, had anything to do with international sanctions.

“We deal purely with safety requirements,” she said. “Our controls focus entirely on safety, nothing else.”
Iran Air has had trouble properly maintaining its aging Boeing 747 and 727 jets purchased in the 1970s because of a 30-year-old U.S. ban on spare parts.
The airline — together with a cargo and a low-cost subsidiary — has more than 60 planes in its inventory. Plans call for many of its older airliners still in service to be replaced by Russian-built Tu-204 medium-range jets starting in 2011.
Iran Air flies to about 60 destinations, mainly in Asia and Europe. Its extensive domestic network covers nearly two dozen airports.
In Tehran, Iran Air spokesman Shahrokh Nooshabadi called the EU decision “unfair,” saying his company will continue contacts with the EU to remove the ban, the official Irna news agency said Tuesday.
Nooshabadi said Iran Air had answered all EU questions about the safety of its fleet “precisely.”
He assured Iran Air passengers there would be no disruption in flights to Europe, since the company would fly the EU-approved Airbus fleet there.

A Kuwaiti official has denied Iran official news agency (IRNA)’s claims that it is refusing to refuel passenger planes coming from Iran as part of US sanctions on the country due to its nuclear program.
Acting General Manager of Kuwait Aviation Fuelling Company (KAFCO) said that the company is still providing fuel for both the Iranian carriers, Iran Air and Mahan Air. “We cannot stop refueling any aircraft from any country unless we have received instructions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and KPC. So far we haven’t received any instructions from them in that regard,” he said speaking to the Arab Times. He added that he had saw the claims in the papers.

KAFCO Operations Supervisors, Badr Al-Modhi, also denied the accusations saying that two Iranian aircrafts arrived in Kuwait on Tuesday but had not requested for refueling. “We have a contract with Iran and our refusal would be a violation. If they had asked for fuel we would have given them,” he said.
According to news agencies an Iranian official said that airports in Britain, Germany and the United Arab Emirates had started to refuse to refuel passenger planes from Iran but the reports were denied in all three countries yesterday. IRNA, the official state news agency, said in a separate reportl that Kuwaiti airports have also turned down fuel for Iranian planes.

Refuel
Iran meanwhile rejected on Tuesday claims by some of its officials that fresh US sanctions on Tehran had prompted airports in Britain, Germany and the United Arab Emirates to refuse to refuel its planes.
“The refuelling of our planes is continuing,” foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters.
“That information is false,” he said when asked to confirm reports that airports in Britain, Germany and the UAE had refused to refuel Iranian passenger planes in accordance with Washington’s latest sanctions on Tehran.
On Monday, Mehdi Aliyari, secretary of the Iranian Airlines Union, told ISNA news agency that Iranian planes were being refused fuel at airports in the three countries.
“Since last week, after the passing of the unilateral law by America and the sanctions against Iran, airports in England, Germany, the UAE have refused to give fuel to Iranian planes,” Aliyari said, adding that operations of national carrier Iran Air and private airliner Mahan Air had been affected.
Kazem Jalali, lawmaker and spokesman of the Iranian parliament’s committee on foreign policy and national security, was quoted Monday by the Iran News daily as making identical allegations against the same three countries.
Despite the foreign ministry’s rejection of the claims, Jalali on Tuesday warned of consequences should fuel be denied to Iranian planes.
“If any action is taken against the fuelling of the Islamic republic’s planes, we will retaliate and answer with seriousness any extremist move on this issue,” Jalali told ISNA.
Iran on Tuesday set September 1 as a possible date to resume nuclear talks with six world powers that have been stalled since last October, but insisted conditions set by Tehran must first be met.
The Islamic republic at the same time rejected claims by some of its officials that airports in Britain, Germany and the United Arab Emirates had refused to refuel its passenger planes, in line with latest US sanctions on Tehran.
Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported that the country’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, in a letter to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said Tehran needed three issues clarified by the world powers before it could consider resuming talks.
Ashton, who is negotiating with Iran on behalf of the so-called P5+1 powers — Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany — had invited Tehran for talks soon after the UN Security Council imposed new sanctions on the Islamic republic on June 9.
Jalili said the world powers must answer whether the talks are aimed at “engagement and cooperation or continued confrontation and hostility towards Iranians.”
“Will you be committed to the logic of talks which calls for avoiding threats and pressure?” he asked, and added that the six powers must air a “clear view” on the “Zionist regime’s nuclear arsenal.”
Israel, which has the Middle East’s sole if undeclared nuclear arsenal, has backed US-led efforts to prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapons capability through sanctions, but has also refused to rule out military force.
Iran insists that its nuclear programme is aimed solely at peaceful purposes and says that the international community should focus on Israel, which, unlike Iran, is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“Your response to the above questions can pave the way for forming talks to allay common global concerns for peace and justice with the presence of other interested countries from Sept 1,” Jalili told Ashton, according to IRNA.
On June 28, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared a two-month freeze until late August on talks with world powers over Iran’s nuclear programme, saying it was a “penalty” for backing new UN sanctions on Tehran.
Iran and the world powers had previously held talks in Geneva on October 1 on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Maja Kocijancic, the spokeswoman for Ashton, welcomed Iran’s readiness to talk but told reporters in Brussels that the dialogue “would have to be on the nuclear programme of Iran.”
Iran has demanded in the past that any talks with world powers on its nuclear activities include discussions on other subjects such as how to achieve world peace.
And on Tuesday, Kazem Jalali, a lawmaker and member of parliament’s foreign policy committee, said that the presence of Brazil and Turkey in the talks could be “beneficial.”
But he said that a “roadmap is more important to the talks than new countries,” according to a report on Mehr news agency.
Brazil and Turkey have sealed a deal with Iran aimed at facilitating a nuclear fuel swap with Russia and France. But talks with world powers on a swap have also been deadlocked since October.
The United States said Tuesday it was willing to meet Iran over its suspect nuclear program if the Islamic republic’s offer to return to talks in September was “serious.”
Iran said earlier that if conditions are met, it could come back to the table on September 1 with the so-called P5-plus-one — the veto-wielding UN powers of Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany.
“If Iran is serious about talking to the P5-plus-one, then I think we’re willing to meet,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.

Warned
China warned other nations Tuesday against taking unilateral actions against Iran’s nuclear programme outside newly passed UN sanctions and denounced the United States for making such moves.
China, under pressure from the United States and Europe, last month voted with 11 other UN Security Council nations for a fourth set of sanctions on Iran over its uranium enrichment.
The sanctions target Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, ballistic missiles and nuclear-related investments.
Last week, US President Barack Obama signed into law far-reaching new sanctions on Iran that aim to curb Tehran’s fuel imports and deepen its international isolation.
“We have noted the US announcements on unilateral sanctions on Iran,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told journalists.
“China believes that countries should earnestly, correctly and comprehensively implement the sanctions and avoid making arbitrary interpretations that expand the Security Council sanctions.”
Qin reiterated China’s long-standing position that diplomacy and dialogue were the best way to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue.
Western governments suspect Iran of seeking to develop a weapons capability under cover of its civilian nuclear programme, an allegation Tehran strongly denies.