US Envoy Warns Georgia Against Long-Term Term Gas Contracts With Iran.
A US diplomat last week warned Georgia against signing a long-term contract for natural gas supplies with Iran. But the Georgian Prime Minister, Zurab Nogaideli, on Nov. 27 reaffirmed that his nation remained determined to import the Iranian gas. US Ambassador to Georgia John Tefft said in an interview published on Nov. 27 in Kviris Palitra newspaper that Washington saw it with "understanding" when the energy-hungry ex-Soviet nation imported the Iranian gas earlier this year, but that a "long-term strategic partnership between Iran and Georgia in that sphere is unacceptable for us".
The US diplomat cited as reasons the recent UN Security Council resolutions regarding Iran's nuclear programmes and Washington's support of a gas pipeline from an Azerbaijani oilfield, which would allow new supplies to Georgia beginning next year. Russia's state gas monopoly Gazprom has said it plans to charge Tbilisi $230 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas, compared with the $110 that it pays now, and warned it would cut off supplies by Jan. 1 if a contract was not signed - a demand that Georgia rejected as a "political blackmail".
Moscow and Tbilisi have been locked in a bruising dispute following the detention of four purported Russian spies in September. Despite their quick release, Russia slapped Georgia with economic sanctions and other punitive measures, which Georgian leaders have criticised as Moscow's retaliation for the Caucasus nation's pro-Western course. Russia is currently Georgia's sole supplier of natural gas, but Prime Minister Nogaideli on Nov. 27 said Georgia was planning to buy gas from Iran next year. He added: "As for our relations with Iran in the energy sphere, we will have such relations. We will likely buy the Iranian gas".
Nogaideli said that US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew J. Bryza had told Georgian officials during his recent visit to Tbilisi "that no matter what relations the US has with Iran, they naturally can't ask us to freeze in the winter and not to buy gas from Iran". Since Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's election in 2004, the poor mountainous country located in the strategic Caucasus region has turned West, seeking closer ties with the US and the EU.