The Iranian newspaper Financial tribune reports that Hamidreza Araqi, the managing director of National Iranian Gas Company, was quoted as saying that Iran is willing to resume supplies of the Turkmen gas outside of court.
“Negotiations on the gas dispute are underway… We hope to end the dispute through dialogue,” Araqi said.
“Iran still has time for taking legal action against Turkmenistan but any issue, in my opinion, can be settled in negotiations”,- Araqi added.
Let us recall in late 2016 a dispute broke out between Iran and Turkmenistan after “Turkmengas” demanded that the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) should pay its debt in the amount of $1,8 to 2 billion.
Iranian media outlets reported that after lengthy negotiations the sides had reached a mutual agreement.Despite this, on 1 January 2017 Turkmenistan stopped gas supplies to Iran.
On 27 May the Iranian media outlets reported that NIGC prepared all required documents to file a lawsuit and threatened to initiate court proceedings in case the sides fail to come to a mutual agreement.