IRANIAN BUT NOT ARMENIAN GAS PIPELINE TO OPEN IN THE NEW YEAR

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 19 2006

The Iran-Armenia gas pipeline is ready but there are problems which
will delay the official opening appointed on December 20. At least
this is what the Armenian government had stated, meanwhile a member
of this government Vardan Oskanyan is stating that the Iranian party
did not test the gas pipeline, and the opening will be when the test
of complete. Vardan Oskanyan stated this in a news conference on
December 19 at the Friday Club.

The Armenian foreign minister, who returned from Iran yesterday, says
the opening of the gas pipeline will be delayed until the Iranian New
Year. It means that the gas pipeline will not be opened till March
because the new year is celebrated in March in Iran. He says there
are no talks over the engagement of a third party in the management
of the pipeline, and the Iranian party has announced for a number of
times that its approval is necessary, showing that they disagree to
the involvement of a third party. In this case, the third is Russia,
which has already stated for a number of times about taking up the
management of the pipeline.

"The involvement of ARG is concerned, not the involvement of Russia.

As far as I know, there is no decision yet, and I informed the Iranian
party, however, it is possible that the most logical decision will be
made," says Vardan Oskanyan about the fate of the gas pipeline. And
the most logical decision, according to Vardan Oskanyan, is that ARG
takes up the management of the gas pipeline.

"In Armenia ARG deals with everything that concerns gas, it would
be pointless to set up another consortium or organization to manage
this section. This would be a natural solution, but I repeat that
there is no solution. The Iranian side is interested in any issue
regarding their supply. So, it is possible to reach an optimal, an
effective solution in the talks with the Iranian party," says the
foreign minister of Armenia.