Japanese car manufacturer Toyota Motors has suspended shipments of car and car parts to Iran indefinitely amid the recent wave of economic sanctions on the country.

It is not clear how long the company will continue to hold back its shipments of Land Cruiser vehicles and other models.

“It is true that Toyota has stopped exports of vehicles bound for Iran,” says Toyota spokesman Keisuke Kirimoto in media reports. “We plan to continue to closely monitor this sensitive international situation.”

Toyota exported about 4,000 vehicles to Iran in 2008, but this fell to just 246 in 2009 due to the economic downturn.

Up until May 2010, Toyota had exported 222 vehicles, but no exports have been made since.

The US imposed a further round of sanctions on Iran in June aimed at weakening its ability to finance and develop its nuclear programme.

Following this, the UK’s BP stopped supplying jet fuel to Iran Air at Germany’s Hamburg airport. Later that month, UK/Dutch Shell Group said it is not renewing its contracts to supply jet fuel to Iranian airlines, as the sanctions against Iran start to hit the aviation industry (MEED 18:7:10).