IRAN OPENS FIRST STRETCH OF ARMENIAN GAS PIPELINE
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 20 2007
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Armenian counterpart
on Monday formally opened the first Armenian section of a natural
gas pipeline linking the two countries.
Ahmadinejad and Armenian President Robert Kocharian inaugurated the
40-kilometer section in the town of Meghri, just over the border from
Iran. "This is more proof of our friendship," Kocharian said at the
ceremony, which was delayed by hours because rain and fog prevented
a helicopter flight that was to transport Ahmadinejad. He arrived
by road.
Under the first stage of the project, Iran is to deliver up to 400
million cubic meters of gas a year; when the pipeline is completed and
extends to the capital, Yerevan, the volume could rise to 2.5 billion
cubic meters a year. The project was launched in 2004 after more than a
decade of negotiations. Russia, which supplies most of Armenia’s gas,
had objected to the project. Armenian officials said last year they
were discussing the prospect of Russia’s natural-gas monopoly Gazprom
purchasing the Armenian section of the pipeline from Iran. Landlocked
Armenia has developed its relations with Iran amid economic troubles
caused by the closing of its borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan in
the wake of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan
occupied by Armenian and ethnic Armenian Karabakhi forces.