TBILISI, Georgia, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- The United States publicly opposes gas cooperation between Georgia in the Caucasus and Iran, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Monday.
RIA Novosti reported U.S. Ambassador to Georgia John Tefft told a Georgian newspaper in an interview published Monday that Washington opposed long-term strategic cooperation between Georgia and Iran in natural gas deliveries.
"In an interview with a Tbilisi newspaper, the diplomat said the statement of Matthew Bryza, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, saying that the White House will not oppose Tbilisi's use of Iran's gas to overcome an energy crisis, had been wrongly interpreted," RIA Novosti said.
RIA Novosti noted that Iran and Georgia had reached a temporary agreement on Iranian gas deliveries to Georgia in January 2006 after explosions on pipelines in Georgia interrupted the supply of Russian gas to Georgia, a former Soviet republic that is seeking to join the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
RIA Novosti noted that Russia and the United States currently disagree on what form of economic sanctions should be imposed upon Iran over its nuclear program. Washington wants a stronger version of the current United Nations resolution that has been drafted by European nations, but Russia and China want the EU resolution to be watered down.
Tefft said in his reported interview that Washington supported the completion of a new pipeline to transport gas to Georgia from neighboring Azerbaijan.
