Iran blasts EU threat to impose sanctions on gas exports

The western threat to impose sanctions against Iran's gas is part of "a propaganda war," an Iranian seior official said here on Saturday in response to the European Union decision to boycott gas imports from the Islamic Republic. "Iran is not exporting gas to the EU at the present time," Spokesman of the Iranian Oil Ministry Alireza Nikzad Rahbar said in statements to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). The EU ban on imports of Iranian gas would harm the energy security of the whole (European) continent; such a ban would inflict more serious damage on the European countries that it could do to Iran, he said. The EU countries have too limited gas resources to depend on while Iran enjoys rich gas reserves, Rahbar went on. He was commenting on a Reuters report two days ago that "the EU is poised to ban imports of Iranian gas into Europe as part of its efforts to ratchet up pressure on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program." With gas reserves amounting to 33 trillion cubic meters, the Islamic Republic of Iran holds the world's second gas reserve.