In These New Times

“I don’t think there would ever be an agreement at this point among the Nabucco consortium for Iranian participation at this time,”

Can the English language survive the twists and turns of an increasingly disorientated US foreign policy?  Never, or, at least, not at the moment.

PressTV

16th July, 2009

Richard Morningstar, the US State Department’s Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy.
A senior US official rules out the possibility of Iran’s participation in Nabucco, saying the gas pipeline consortium would reject Tehran’s involvement.

“I don’t think there would ever be an agreement at this point among the Nabucco consortium for Iranian participation at this time,” Richard Morningstar, the US State Department’s Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy told the Senate Foreign Relations committee on Thursday.

“Some countries in that region would like to see Iran participate,” he said, but added, “I don’t think anybody expects participation now,” Reuters quoted Morningstar as saying.

On the other hand, the US official welcomed the idea of Iraqi gas for the pipeline.

Morningstar said it was “significant” that the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had expressed interest this week in supplying Iraqi gas to Nabucco.

Some EU countries and Turkey signed a transit deal for the Nabucco pipeline in Ankara on Monday.

The 3,300-kilometer (2,050-mile) pipeline will bring Caspian and Central Asian gas to Europe and is meant to reduce the European Union’s dependence on Russian natural gas.