Kavkaz News

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran will start gas exports to Armenia by Oct. 1st, head of the gas export operation office of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIOC) said following the latest round of talks between the two sides.

PARIS/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia and European powers took a step back from confrontation over Georgia on Friday, with Moscow urging the EU not to rush into punitive action and France saying now was not the time for sanctions.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A keen sense the West cheated Moscow out of promised warmer ties after the Cold War explains why Russia, recovered from post-Soviet collapse, has refused to be cowed over Georgia and demanded its views be heard.

RIGA (Reuters) – Latvia favors the suspension of talks on a new cooperation pact between the European Union and Russia until Moscow has withdrawn its troops from Georgia, the Baltic state’s foreign minister said on Friday.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia said on Friday it was cutting diplomatic ties with Russia over the Kremlin’s recognition of two Georgian rebel regions as independent states.”We have received instructions at the Foreign Ministry and we will cut diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation,” Deputy Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze told reporters.

DUSHANBE/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s energy minister and a top oil company denied on Friday they were preparing to cut oil flows to Europe in response to threatened sanctions, a step Moscow never took even at the height of the Cold War.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said no one doubts Iran’s right to use peaceful nuclear energy in accordance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Criticism by the G7 group of nations of Russia’s actions in Georgia is biased and groundless, Russian officials say.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Azerbaijan’s national oil company, SOCAR, said on Monday it had begun exporting Azeri Light crude to Iran to compensate for export constraints imposed by a pipeline blast in Turkey and war in Georgia.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia’s parliament approved a resolution on Thursday calling on the government to cut diplomatic ties with Russia after Moscow backed the secession of two Georgian rebel regions.