By Armen Zakarian
The speaker of the Armenian parliament, Armen Khachatrian, said on Monday that he stands for the creation of a political “axis” comprising Armenia, Iran and Russia, and discussed the matter during a visit to Moscow last week.
“I believe that the creation of such an axis is extremely important for Armenia and our economic development in particular. It is indeed promising,” he told a news conference.
Khachatrian said that he discussed only “general issues” related to the trilateral cooperation with the speaker of the Russian lower house, Gennady Seleznev, and other officials. The planned construction of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline was on the agenda of the talks, he added.
The Russian government is thought to be having misgivings about the pipeline project, fearing that Iranian gas could break its virtual monopoly on the Armenian market of energy resources.