TEHRAN: Iran will export gas and water to Kuwait based on several cooperation agreements that were inked between both sides yesterday. "We held 'successful' talks with Iranian officials in Tehran," Advisor at the Prime Ministers' Diwan Dr Ismail Al-Shatti said, adding that he conveyed a letter from His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah to Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi.
Shatti and the accompanying delegation met with senior Iranian officials including ministers of foreign affairs, commerce, energy, economic affairs and finance. The Kuwaiti delegation was able to seek ways to boost cooperation with Iran in several fields. Shatti said the Iranian government approved a Kuwaiti request to establish a temporary cultural center until the construction of Kuwait Cultural Center in Tehran that included a mosque, library and other facilities is completed.
Kuwait and Iran signed several agreements in fields of economy, commerce, customs, power, importing water from Iran and holding cultural weeks. On the importation of gas from Iran, Shatti said the bulky part of the agreement was finalized and only few matters remained to be addressed through further negotiations. He invited head of the Iranian follow-up team Dr Agha Mohammadi to visit Kuwait in order to complete talks of bilateral cooperation.
Mohammadi will visit Kuwait in the future heading a delegation of businessmen and experts in ports. A government-owned Iranian company has announced plans to construct a 350-mile pipeline to export natural gas to Kuwait. "The result of the negotiations is very satisfactory and for this purpose the parties intend to establish a joint venture company," Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Company Reza Kasaeizadeh said in a statement.
The announcement of the proposed deal comes as the United States is trying to mobilize international support for harsher sanctions on Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program. The Iran energy sector this is vital to the country's economy is often mentioned as a possible target of the sanctions. Analysts said Kuwait may have chosen to work with the National Iranian Gas Company, which is owned by the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, was because it had been snubbed on a similar project by Saudi Arabia.
One reason Kuwait has been looking at Iran is because Saudi Arabia has not allowed a gas pipeline from Qatar to Kuwait to go ahead since such a pipeline would go through Saudi maritime territory," Dr Christian Koch Director of International Studies Gulf Research Center told The Media Line. "Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have also not resolved their dispute over the Dorra gas field," he added. But Koch said he was skeptical this gas pipeline project would actually develop, particularly since similar deals on wa
ter have not materialized.
Washington has been pressuring its allies on the southern side of the Gulf to curtail their business dealing with in Iran. This could be tricky, according to Jane Kinninmont, an editor with the Economist Intelligence Unit. "The Emirate of Dubai has close economic links with Iran, which is its single largest trading partner," said Kinninmont. "There are also up to half a million Iranian expatriates based in Dubai, many of whom are senior business figures.
Bahrain, where the US Navy's Fifth Fleet is based, is in discussions with Iran about the possibility of importing natural gas, which Bahrain needs for its aluminum smelter [plants]," Kinninmont added. Iran' nuclear program has increasingly become a major source of tension between the US and Iran. While Teheran, which holds the world's second largest oil and gas reserves, claims the program is solely for power production, Washington says the energy program is being used as a screen to develop nuclear weap
ons.
The US has been pushing for stricter sanctions backed by the United Nations Security Council, following a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in February 2010 outlining Iran's long history of clandestine nuclear weapons development. Sanctions backed by the Security Council would add to those imposed by the US and include all member states in the United Nations, but require both China's and Russia's support as permanent members of the Security Council and veto power holders.
Both China and Russia has extensive business ties with Iran. A failed deal for a planned nuclear plant in Bushear involved Russia offering Iran to provide and retain the plant's fuel but was rejected for unclear reasons by Iran. Used nuclear fuel is the basis for producing weapons grade, or refined uranium, required in a nuclear weapon.
- Agencies
Kuwait Times
