IRANIAN OFFICIAL DISCUSSES CLOSER TIES WITH ARMENIA

Fars News Agency
Dec 24 2008
Iran

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Undersecretary
Ali Bagheri called for the expansion of Tehran’s economic and political
relations with neighboring Armenia at the start of a three-day visit
to Yerevan on Tuesday.

Bagheri met with Artur Baghdasarian, head of a similar body advising
President Serzh Sarkisian on national security, and other senior
Armenian officials.

"The parties stressed the need to raise Armenian-Iranian relations
to a strategic level," Baghdasarian’s office said in a statement. It
said the two men discussed ways of implementing large-scale bilateral
projects such as the construction of railway linking Armenia to Iran
and a pipeline to deliver Iranian petrol and diesel fuel to the South
Caucasus state.

Bagheri also discussed the projects at separate talks with Foreign
Minister Eduard Nalbandian. The Armenian Foreign Ministry did not
report further details.

Energy Minister Armen Movsisian said on Monday that work on the 300
kilometer pipeline will start next year and take two years. He said
Tehran and Yerevan will each cover half of its cost estimated at
between $200 million and $240 million.

Earlier this month, the two governments inaugurated the final section
of another pipeline that will enable Armenia to import natural gas
from Islamic Republic.

Movsisian and other officials in Yerevan have not yet announced any
dates for the start of Iranian gas supplies, though.