Mehr News Agency, Iran
April 28 2006
Iran-Armenia pipeline is not for sale: minister
TEHRAN, Apr. 28 (MNA) – Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan
denies it while Manok Gasparian, an MP, says that the contract
indicating the sale of Iran-Armenia Gas Export Pipeline is on his
table.
However, the Prime Minister did acknowledge the sale of 5th energy
unit of Hrazdan (Harazdan-5) to Gazprom of Russia for $60m as part of
ongoing privatization process in Armenia, the Persian service of ISNA
reported on Friday.
Elsewhere in the news, the nation’s Energy Minister Armen Movsisyan
reiterated that the pipeline is not for sale while the Russian
company omitted this section from its news site and corrected it
later. The energy minister also rejected that the money has been
transferred to the Defense Ministry’s account.
`The contract clearly states that 40 km of the pipeline will be sold
to Gazprom and the plan to construct additional 137 km is on the
agenda,’ Gasparian emphasized.