LONDON (AFP) -- Italy’s Eni will continue to do business in Iran amid American pressure for companies to cut investment in the country, Eni’s chief executive said in an interview published yesterday.

Paolo Scaroni told the Financial Times from Rome that Eni “will stick to our contracts,” adding that it was not “appropriate” for anyone to force Eni not to honor those contracts.
Scaroni said Eni was waiting for Iran and the West to eventually get their relations “on a reasonable footing”.
Israel and the West claim that Iran’s nuclear program is cover for a drive to develop a nuclear weapon but Iran insists it is aimed solely at producing electricity for a growing population once fossil fuels run out.
Separately, Scaroni also said that Europe was “sleepwalking” into a “staggering” dependence on gas imported from outside the continent, while also predicting that gas prices would inevitably rise for European customers.
According to the FT, however, his primary concern was the security of the supply of gas, telling the paper: “Gas is a much more fragile product (than oil), more difficult to deliver to customers.”