NICOSIA — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has attacked a
proposed natural gas deal with the United Arab Emirates.
Ahmadinejad said a contract to sell Iranian gas to the UAE's Crescent
Petroleum was tainted with corruption. The president, who ruled out any deal
based on a 2001 agreement, said the contract contained what he termed an
unacceptably low price. Under the contract, Crescent was to have received
600 million cubic feet of gas per day from Iran's offshore Salman field, Middle East Newsline reported.
"This contract was struck based on an incorrect relationship between
some politicians that are active today, at a very low price," Ahmadinejad
said on Sept. 18. "This government will not allow even one penny belonging
to this nation to be wasted."
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This marked the strongest criticism of the Crescent deal by an Iranian
official.
Ahmadinejad said Crescent has illegally relayed money to Iranian
officials, something the company later denied.
