Pakistan and Iran to go forth with the Gas pipeline project despite pressure from US

Pakistan and Iran to go forth with the Gas pipeline project despite pressure from US

Tuesday, February 7, 2012: Pakistan and Iran have given green signal to go forth with the Gas pipeline project despite the immense pressure being applied by the United States of America.

US has been demanding Pakistan to put the project on hold but the country has decided to ignore the demands and complete the project, as the gas shortfall in the country intensifies.

Pakistan and Iran are to increase the workload on the project to complete in within the stipulated time. A group of Iranian delegates led by Iranian International Affairs Vice President Ali Saeedlou, and Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Finance
Minister, meet their Pakistani counterparts to finalise the decision.

Saeedlou assured the personals present in the meeting that Iran will complete the pending work as soon as possible. The Finance Minister, Shaikh, also shared his views. The Minister said, “Work on the gas pipeline will be intensified
in a bid to complete the project as soon as possible.”

Ijaz Chaudhry, Petroleum Secretary who represented Pakistan in the meeting, said, “Both sides reviewed the progress on the IP project and we are confident that it will be completed by the end of 2014.”

The announcement of Pak-Iran gas pipeline is bound to draw a strong reaction from US, which has recently delivered its toughest warning yet to Pakistan regarding the plan to import gas from Iran.

Last week, a senior US diplomat conveyed to Islamabad that any attempt to go ahead with the gas pipeline would be considered as ‘furthering Iran’s nuclear programme’, sources said.

An US diplomat has also confirmed the development saying that Washington has serious suspicions over the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas project.

“Pakistan will be in for serious trouble if it does not abandon the project. Any country, any bank or any financial institution which tries to work with Iran, will certainly be slapped with sanctions,” warned an US diplomat.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=12032

Posted by Wajahat Javed on Feb 8 2012. Filed under Business, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry