KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Iranian fuel shipments to Afghanistan are moving normally but could be halted if they make their way to NATO forces, an Iranian envoy said.
A decision from Tehran in December to stop diesel tankers from crossing the border with Afghanistan left thousands of deliveries stranded in Iran, sparking a rise in commodity prices in Afghanistan.
The Iranian Embassy in Kabul, denying reports of a blockade, said there were only 160 oil tankers waiting to cross into Afghanistan, the semiofficial Fars News Agency reports.
Afghanistan gets about 30 percent of its refined oil products from Iran. The Islamic republic serves as a transit country for fuel deliveries from Iraq and Turkmenistan, Tehran says.
Fada Hossein Maleki, the Iranian envoy to Afghanistan, had earlier warned Kabul that letting NATO forces in the country use Iranian fuel would endanger what he said were undisrupted exports.
Earlier this month, Maleki said Iran had placed no ban in fuel deliveries to Afghanistan. The government in Kabul, he added, should make sure the fuel is used for domestic purposes, however.
"It is completely natural that no one but the Afghan people are entitled to use the fuel," he said. "The fuel is for the Afghan people and the government in Kabul should control it."
