Moscow—Russia on Monday played down Iranian hopes for an imminent start to a long-awaited crude trade deal between the oil exporters following comments by Iran’s oil minister suggesting the deal could get underway this week. Minister Bijan Zanganeh, who had a meeting with his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak on the sidelines of an OPEC seminar last week, said Friday he hoped the two countries would begin implementing a deal for the major crude exporter to buy oil from Iran in a week or so.
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