Kyiv and Tehran Will Now Cooperate “Concretely”

On February 1 Iranian Foreign Minister Kemal Harrazi flew to Belarus after a two day official visit to Kyiv. He believes the atmosphere of all Iranian- Ukrainian meetings was quite warm, supposedly meaning the Ukrainian leadership is prepared to cooperate.

He was echoed by his Ukrainian counterpart Anatoly Zlenko who described the Iranian delegation’s visit as a “concrete step,” one of those he had dwelt upon at such length in his program speech last week. Mr. Zlenko noted that a broad range of issues was covered when discussing Ukrainian-Iranian cooperation, particularly in the economic, energy, and cultural domains. The Iranian minister met with President Kuchma and discussed prospects of bilateral cooperation in energy transport and joint production of the AN-140 aircraft, reports the presidential press service. In fact, the first test flight is scheduled this week. It became known last Thursday that Premier Yushchenko is slated to make a working visit to Iran on February 6-7 to watch the flight. The Ukrainian side also made it clear Ukraine is interested in participating in the Iranian-Russian Tu-134 project.

Energy transport was by no means a minor point on the agenda. Mr. Harrazi announced that Kyiv and Tehran came up with the initiative of setting up a team of experts to study the possibility of transporting Iranian natural gas to Europe. In his words, this project is new and different from all previous ones. It comes down to extending the gas pipeline from Iran to Ukraine across Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia. The Iranian minister stressed that his country boasts 10% of the world’s oil fields and 14% its of natural gas. Among Mr. Zlenko’s rather categorical (he prefers the adjective, concrete) statements are those about Ukrainian-US and Ukrainian-Russian relationships in the context of developing contacts with Tehran. First, the US sanctions causing the 1998 Bushehr incident. Mr. Zlenko noted that this time “we will proceed from our national interests.” As for the pipeline construction project, which can be regarded by Moscow as a kind of threat to its bypass plans, the Ukrainian minister pointed out that “we do not regard it in this context.” He believes that it is no threat to Russia. Moreover, Mr. Zlenko emphasized that “we look for what is best for us.”