Iran resumes gas exports to Turkey after pipeline blast

Iran resumed pumping natural gas to Turkey on Saturday after a one-day halt following a blast on the pipeline, Reuters reports.

According to Iranian media, Kurdish rebel group PJAK is believed to have been behind the blast on Friday. Sabotage is common on pipelines leading into Turkey from Iran and Iraq, where Kurdish separatist militants are based.

PJAK is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which took up arms in 1984 to fight for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey. Both Tehran and Washington have called PJAK a terrorist organisation.

Iran is Turkey's second biggest supplier of natural gas after Russia.