January 24, 2006 - 13:48 AMT
Armenia Receives Gas from Azerbaijan, U.S. Department of State Says
U.S. officials have intervened to help sort out the latest European natural gas crisis that erupted after Russian supplies to Georgia were cut by pipeline explosions, the State Department said. "We did talk to the parties that were involved in the issue over the weekend. Presently natural gas flows into Georgia and Armenia via an alternative pipeline passing through neighboring Azerbaijan," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. Meanwhile it should be noted that the statement by the State Department spokesman is erroneous. Armenia receives gas not from Azerbaijan, which refuses from any economic cooperation with Yerevan until the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement, but from the Abovyan gas reservoir and does not receive any assistance from the neighbor states.

"The causes of the pipeline explosion are not known yet. We called upon the Russian authorities to clear them up. Russia says, it was a terrorist act. However, independently of the cause of the blasts it is important that Armenia and Georgia's neighbors joined effort and rendered assistance in the crisis. The U.S. intervened to help sort out the crisis and we are proud of it," Sean McCormack said. He said the American officials involved included Dan Fried, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, his deputy Matthew Bryza, and US diplomats in Georgia, reported Mediamax.