Change Of Pace: IRANIAN Official Forced To Turn Back From Visiting Europe

I remember back in June reading in the LA Times that protesters had blocked the unloading of Israeli cargo ship in Oakland. As it turned out, they had blocked a Chinese ship by mistake, and the ones behind the whole thing was a pro-Palestinian group, not the dockworkers themselves.

Still, based on that story, I did not pay close attention to the story from Holland that Dutch gas companies refused to fuel the Iranian Foreign Minister's plane--I misread the headline as referring to Israel.

But in fact, this story is all about Iran:

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki dropped his planned visit to the Netherlands on Tuesday because US sanctions meant his Iran Air plane might be refused fuel.


“Mr. Mottaki canceled his visit because the government of the Netherlands could not guarantee that his plane would be refueled by private fuel firms at Schiphol airport, which follow US sanctions,” Ward Bezemer, a spokesman for the Dutch Foreign Ministry, wrote The Jerusalem Post.

“The Dutch government has nothing to do with this, since this concerns US sanctions, not EU or UN sanctions.”

Mottaki was slated to attend a conference organized by the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies that involves an “understanding of the regional developments and Iran’s role towards achieving regional stability.”

Mottaki also planned to attend the annual session of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Bezemer wrote by e-mail that “The Dutch Foreign Minister did not oppose Mr. Mottaki’s trip to the Netherlands. He was welcome to attend the OPCW meeting; visas were arranged. Also, a meeting between Mr. Mottaki and Foreign Minister [Uri] Rosenthal was organized.”

According to Bezemer, “Mr. Mottaki apparently chose not to use alternative travel options (e.g. flying by Iran Air, which refuels elsewhere in Europe, KLM or others). This is his own choice. By the way, his deputy minister did travel to the Netherlands to attend the OPCW meeting by using these alternative options.”

This is a good step in the right direction.

Considering Iran's record on humanitarian rights, maybe the next step could be warrants to arrest Iranian leaders visiting Europe?

Technorati Tag: Iran.