US cautions Europeans to avoid oil, gas deals with Iran

The Bush administration is warning European oil and gas companies against investing in Iran, trying to head off a push by Tehran to attract new investment by international oil giants. In the past two weeks, the administration has met with European oil company executives about the Middle East, and during one session a senior State Department official cautioned that the situation with Iran was "hot and is going to get hotter," one executive said. An executive from another major European company said, "The administration is putting the full-court press on foreign companies and is going all out to impress upon them that it would be a mistake to do anything with" Iran. US companies are barred from doing business with Iran. In 1995, an executive order stopped them from even bringing Iranian oil to Europe. In 1996, Congress passed the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, enabling the US government to sanction foreign firms doing business with Iran.