Iranian Ambassador to Afghanistan Fada Hossein Maleki Wednesday warned Kabul that supplying the NATO forces with the fuel imported from Iran would endanger undisrupted export and transit of Iranian fuel to Afghanistan, FNA reported.
"Transit of fuel from Iran's borders to Afghanistan has returned to its previous and natural trend and Iran has placed no ban on the dispatch of fuel to Afghanistan via its borders," Maleki said.
Yet, Maleki cautioned the Afghan officials that if the NATO forces are supplied with the imported Iranian fuel, Tehran will certainly ban the transit of fuel to Afghanistan.
"It is completely natural that no one but the Afghan people are entitled to use the fuel," he said, adding, "The fuel is for the Afghan people, and the government in Kabul should control it."
Iran supplies about 30 percent of Afghanistan's refined fuel, Afghan officials say. The remainder of vehicle and heating fuel comes from Iraq and Turkmenistan and is only transiting Iran, they say.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said Tuesday the issue would soon be resolved, stressing the ban was the result of "technical problems" after the Iranian subsidies were cut in late December.
"After changes that cut subsidies, it is natural that some technical problems occur when sending fuel to the neighboring countries. ... The problem is being resolved," Mehman-Parast said.
Afghan Commerce Ministry and customs officials have said Iranian authorities notified them that the trucks were not being allowed through for national security reasons - a reference to the suspicion that the fuel is bound for NATO forces.
Senior Afghan officials recently traveled to Tehran to discuss the fuel issue. An afghan official said Iran on Monday began allowing 40 trucks per day through its borders with three western Afghan provinces, up from about four trucks per day in the preceding two weeks.
"The issue, we hope, will be solved sooner rather than later so that (Afghans) will not have to suffer because of a lack of day-to-day goods," Waheed Omer, Karzai's spokesman, said recently.
Refined fuel prices have risen from around $900 per ton to between $1,500 and $1,600 per ton, said Hobidullah, the head of the chamber of commerce in the Southern Nimroz province, one of three provinces bordering Iran.