Thursday, February 28 2019 18:16

ArmInfo.Considering the changes in  Armenia, the new leadership's political will to develop  relations with Iran, Nikol Pashinyan's visit to this neighboring  country is extremely important both for foreign policy and, of  course, for the Armenian economy.

A similar opinion was expressed by ArmInfo expert of the Armenian Institute of International Relations and Security Ruben Mehrabian.Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan,  who is on a two-day visit to Iran, has already met with Iranian  President Hassan Rouhani, spiritual leader of the country Ayatollah  Ali Khamenei, Mejlis Speaker Ali Larijani.

"It so happens that quite a few questions from the very extensive  Armenian-Iranian agenda remain only on paper, even with a legal  framework. And the potential of Armenian-Iranian relations is still  great. And in the direction of their development, much can be  achieved subject to international sanctions and restrictions on Iran  ",- he said.According to the expert, aimed at supporting the domestic  producer and import substitution, the protectionist policy of Russia  imposes certain restrictions on relations between the EEU member  Armenia and neighboring Iran. In this sense, the membership of  Armenia in the EAEU, these restrictions, according to his estimates,  only aggravates. Meanwhile, how exactly Iran is today the only  country allowing Armenia to diversify hydrocarbon imports from  Russia.According to Mr. Mehrabian, the enslaving bonded agreements  with "Gazprom" and "Rosneft" made it possible for these companies to  have monopoly positions in Armenia. And for concrete steps of Yerevan  in the direction of rectifying the situation, we need specific  mutually beneficial proposals from Tehran. Only after that it will be  possible to begin to solve the issue of diversification of energy  resources."

It was originally planned that the gas pipeline from Iran to Armenia  would be transit, however, at the insistence of Gazprom, in 2006 its  diameter was sharply narrowed at the Armenian-Iranian border.   However, in the conditions of the changed Armenian internalities,  now, in my opinion, time to start a new dialogue on this topic. It  seems to me that today there are all the prerequisites for its  successful completion, "the expert concluded.Following the talks with  Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held on February 27, Iranian  President Hassan Rouhani expressed readiness to increase gas supplies  to Armenia.  According to him, the new gas supply will allow  expanding electricity to gas barter between Armenia and Iran. Tehran  is also ready to discuss trilateral cooperation for the export of gas  to Georgia, transit through Armenia. In terms of cooperation in the  field of energy, the parties considered the possibilities of the  energy corridor Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Russia, the transport and  logistics from the Persian Gulf to the Black Sea.