Tehran: Iran is refusing to refuel some European and Arab airlines at its main international airport in a tit-for-tat move over major oil companies denying fuel to Iranian planes abroad, the airport's chief said on Saturday.

"Government directives" ordered the ban, Morteza Dehqan, head of Tehran's Imam Khomeini international airport, told the ISNA news agency.

"In a reciprocal move, we are not giving fuel to the airlines of countries which do not give fuel to our airlines," he said.

He did not say when the decision was adopted.

It was not immediately clear which foreign airlines were affected by the decision.