Iran has indicated it is prepared to export natural gas to this former Soviet country, which has been severely hit by a sharp drop in Russian gas deliveries, Georgia's energy minister said on Tuesday.
Millions of Georgians remained without gas on Tuesday for the third day in freezing winter temperatures because of gas shortages that followed pipeline blasts in a southern Russian region neighboring Georgia.
The incident has prompted Georgia's pro-Western government to urgently seek to diversify its energy imports.
"Iran has said it is willing to supply gas to Georgia," Energy Minister Nika Gilauri told reporters after a quick trip to Iran.
Half of the 1.5 million residents in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, are without gas, while in the rest of the 4.7-million nation, only two mountainous regions are getting gas supplies, Energy Ministry spokeswoman Teona Doliashvili said.
Russia has piped alternative gas supplies to Georgia from Azerbaijan, but Gilauri said on Tuesday the country was getting only around 35 percent of its usual gas volumes from Russia.
Georgia, which also has suffered electricity cuts, is in the midst of an exceptionally cold snap with daytime temperatures that have fallen to minus 25oC in remote mountain regions.
Some Tbilisi residents carted wood into their apartments to light stoves while those with a reliable power supply plugged electric radiators in.
In the eastern city of Rustavi, the 120,000 inhabitants were without electricity, gas or water, Georgian television reported.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to take action against the EU if it moves forward with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s proposal to make Canada the bloc’s first associate member. “If they do that, if I think it’s at all a hostile act; I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many things,” Trump told reporters en route to an event in North Carolina, calling the proposal “laughable.” “If it’s a good intention, that’s fine. If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe,” he said. Von der Leyen made the proposal
ON THE MOVE: Trump unexpectedly cut short a trip to return to the White House, while the State Department warned Americans to avoid travel to the Middle East The US on Saturday warned that hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Iran-backed Houthis could “escalate rapidly” after a missile attack targeted Riyadh for the first time since the Yemen conflict resumed. US President Donald Trump on Saturday cut short a weekend at Camp David, a secluded presidential complex in rural Maryland, to return unexpectedly to the White House. The White House gave no explanation for the early return, which comes as a new threshold was crossed in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, who control a large part of Yemen and are fighting government forces backed by a coalition led
World leaders gather in New York this week for the UN General Assembly, bracing for US President Donald Trump’s return to the rostrum for a second year running, with talks centering on the widening conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and the risks of artificial intelligence (AI). Nearly 130 heads of state meet with the post-World War II order under strain and with the UN itself struggling to remain relevant and weathering attacks from Trump, who has slashed the US’ contributions and withdrawn from dozens of UN bodies. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who last addressed the diplomatic jamboree via video
The US military came close to boarding a Chinese vessel in the Middle East earlier this year based on a flawed intelligence report prepared with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), CNN said on Friday. US intelligence indicated the ship was carrying nuclear weapons-related components, leading US forces to prepare to intercept it, the broadcaster reported, citing four anonymous sources familiar with the incident. However, the operation was called off after officials determined that an AI chatbot used by an analyst had misidentified the material the ship was carrying. The report was “entirely false,” but “almost started a war,” CNN quoted one source
RSS