The US government has started to put pressure on India's largest private sector firm Reliance Industries (RIL) to stop sale of gasoline to Iran. A group of American Congressmen expressed reservations on the decision of Export-Import Bank of the US to provide financial assistance to RIL as it has business ties with Iran.

The congressmen criticized the Mukesh Ambani-led RIL for supplying refined petroleum products for Iran as the country is going ahead with its nuclear program.

The lawmakers asked the Ex-Im Bank not to issue the un-disbursed guarantees to RIL as the move is against the foreign policy of US. Ex-Im has approved loan guarantees worth USD 900 million to RIL to raise funds for its expansion program including development of the D-6 block in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin.

Congress member, Brad Sherman with eight other Congress members have written a letter to bank and said," US is leading an effort to increase economic and diplomatic pressures on the Iranian regime in response to Tehran's nuclear program and its support for terrorism... While we would normally strongly support this type of assistance to facilitate US exports to India, we are deeply concerned about the inadequate attention paid to other vital national interest in the approval of these guarantees."

Confirming the resentment of congressmen, the director of public affairs and deputy head at the Office of Communications for the bank, Phil Cogan said, "We have received the letter from lawmakers and are in process of formulating the response. We are reviewing the matter, as of now no decision has been taken."