TEHRAN- Ukraine is willing to transit Iran’s oil and gas to the Eastern Europe countries, said Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh after his meeting on Monday with Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Igor Nasalyk who visited Iran on the head of a delegation.

According to Zanganeh, Iran’s suggestion to start cooperation is supplying oil to Ukraine, despite the fact that the European country needs a limited quantity of oil as its refining capacity is low and it is an importer of oil products, IRNA reported.

“Ukraine enjoys a strong and efficient transferring network; therefore, we will hold more negotiations with the country in the future for transfer of Iran’s oil and gas to Europe via Ukraine”, the minister further noted, explaining, “we will investigate the practicality and economic viability of supplying some part of oil needed by the Czech Republic and Slovakia via Ukraine.”

Ukraine accounts for transferring a large portion of Russia’s oil and gas to Europe, although Moscow-Kiev ties have been in tatters since the Crimean Peninsula rejoined Russia in a referendum in March 2014 and Kiev commenced a military crackdown on pro-Russian forces fighting for greater autonomy in the Russian-speaking Lugansk and Donetsk in the east of the country.

MA/MG