Hossein Naghavi Hosseini said today’s session convened at the Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission aimed to review and find ways to resolve the current issues hindering economic relations between Iran and Turkmenistan.
The session was attended by a number of officials from petroleum and energy ministries, CEO of National Iranian Gas Company, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Central Bank of Iran.
Economic issues in the two countries’ bilateral cooperation, particularly the dispute over gas swap, were discussed at the session, Naghavi Hosseini said.
Other topics of discussion included energy transactions between the two sides, from both private and public sectors. The parliamentary official said the participants stressed that these issues need to be resolved as soon as possible.
“Turkmenistan has certain complaints about the gas swap and energy transactions with Iran, which the Iranian government should work to resolve,” he said. “Energy officials cite banking issues as the key obstacle to settling bilateral issues with Turkmenistan.”
According to Amir Hossein Zamaninia, Iran’s deputy petroleum minister for international affairs and trade, Iran and Turkmenistan are working through a gas price dispute that had halted the flow of gas between the two countries for over a year.
Naghavi Hosseini said the session concluded with the decision that Iran should untangle relations with Turkmenistan in any way possible.
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