Azernews.Az

Iran has taken pre-emptive measures to counter the planned EU ban on Iran's gas sector after the EU announced it is scheduled to discuss a package of sanctions at a meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday as part of measures to mount pressure on Iran over its nuclear energy program.

The vice chairman of the Iranian parliament (Majlis) energy committee Naser Soudani told the Mehr news agency that boosting the exports of petrochemical products with a high added-value is one of the policies against the EU sanctions.

He referred to Asian countries, including Pakistan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, India, as well as some Central Asian as the main buyers of Iranian natural gas.

The Iranian Oil Ministry has said the recent threat posed by the EU to ban gas imports from Iran is a mere 'propaganda campaign' as Iran exports no gas to the European bloc.

"Right now Iran has no gas exports to the EU and the threat of sanctions against Iran's gas is mere propaganda campaign," Press TV quoted Alireza Nikzad Rahbar, a spokesman for the ministry on October 6.

He said that possible sanctions against Iran's gas would be mostly to the detriment of European countries as they would deprive themselves of Iran's vast gas reserves and thus would have to increase their reliance on other sources of energy.

"We consider the EU threat as a mere propaganda campaign because the increase in the EU's dependence on limited sources of gas will put at risk the energy security of this continent," he added.