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U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy says no talks with Azerbaijan on new sanctions on Iran - VIDEO

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy says no talks with Azerbaijan on new sanctions on Iran - <font color=red>VIDEO</font>

05 October 2009 17:30 (UTC +04:00)

According to him, he had meetings with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, Industry and Energy Minister Natig Aliyev and SOFAZ Executive Director Shahmar Movsumov.

He also added he is scheduled to meet with SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev on that day.

Expressing satisfaction with the negotiations in Baku, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy noted that the meetings with participation of representatives from oil firms were mainly focused on the delivery of Azeri gas to European markets, as well as westbound transportation of Azeri and Kazakh oil.

Asked by the APAâ€™s correspondent about Stratforâ€™s report that â€œAzerbaijan may be one of the active participants of the gasoline embargo on Iranâ€, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy answered that Iran is already under sanction by two UN resolutions.

In his words, the United States hasnâ€™t held any negotiations with Azerbaijani officials on new sanctions on Iran.

â€œI have not heard of the particular sanctions that were mentioned in the report and I would not want to speculate on where the governments might goâ€¦. We have seen the commencement of diplomatic negotiations just in last week following the recent disclosure of this newly discovered centrifuge plant. The negotiations with Iran are to bring Iran back into compliance with their international obligations and I think that whatever decisions get taken subsequent to those discussions with respect to the specific sanctionsâ€¦ will depend on what happens in those negotiations. And so weâ€™ll just have to wait and see,â€ he added.