ISLAMABAD, April 30: A proposed gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan and India will not be affected if the United Nations imposes sanctions on Tehran over its Iran’s nuclear programme, an Iranian minister said on Sunday. “I don’t think anybody could put sanctions on the oil industry and gas industry,” Deputy Oil Minister Mohammad-Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian told a press conference in Islamabad after three days of talks on the project.

“Due to the sensitivity of the oil market any action like that will increase oil prices very high and I believe that the UN and any other body will not put any sanctions on oil or the oil industry,” Nejad-Hosseinian said, when asked about the future of the project if sanctions were imposed.

The International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday confirmed that Iran had not complied with a UN Security Council demand to freeze uranium enrichment, which can be used to make the explosive core of nuclear bombs.

The United States and European powers are now poised to seek a Security Council resolution legally obliging it to meet IAEA and Council demands.

If Iran still refuses, such a resolution could pave the way for economic sanctions or even military action, although Tehran’s major trading partners, Russia and China — which have a veto on the Council — oppose any such move.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is a peaceful effort to generate electricity and therefore entirely legal.—AFP