US still concerned over Pak-Iran gas pipeline
US reiterates concerns over multi-billion-dollar pipeline plan projected to bring gas from Iran to Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD:
The US has reiterated concerns over the multi-billion-dollar pipeline plan projected to bring gas from Iran to Pakistan. Washington has also brushed aside the impression that it has changed its position on the matter.
“We support Pakistan government’s plans to meet its energy shortages, but that does not mean we have approved the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project,” said US embassy spokesman Alberto Rodriguez on Monday. “We have conveyed our concerns to the government of Pakistan,” he told The Express Tribune in response to media reports suggesting that the US is no longer opposing the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project. Rodriguez, however, did not elaborate.
Washington wants to penalise Iran over its alleged ambitions to seek atom bomb by pressing Pakistan not to enter into economic venture with Tehran. India, which was also part of the original plan, has already done so in exchange of securing a civilian nuclear deal with the US. The Obama Administration has so far spurned similar request from Pakistan, but has offered to assist it in obtaining Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and electricity from Tajikistan via Afghanistan if it abandoned the Iranian pipeline project. The project, costing nearly $8 billion, has already been signed between Pakistan and Iran. If everything goes well, Pakistan would start getting natural gas by 2014.
In June this year, President Barrack Obama signed into law the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act that could potentially create problem for Pakistan and its companies, which are in process of importing gas from Iran. Under the legislation, the US can bar foreign companies from the American financial system and markets if they continue to do business with Iranian entities, which are involved in the energy sector.
US Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke was on record in saying that it would be “a disaster if an agreement was reached which then triggered something under the law.” However, Pakistan is trying to downplay the US concerns, saying the Obama Administration is well aware of the fact that its opposition to the project would not go down well with the public here.
“Pakistan is a sovereign country and we take decisions in our own national interests,” remarked Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit. The spokesman told The Express Tribune that the US sanctions on Iran are not applicable to its gas sector. “Therefore, Pakistan is of the view that the sanctions on Iran do not have an impact on the gas pipeline project,” he insisted.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2010.
The US has reiterated concerns over the multi-billion-dollar pipeline plan projected to bring gas from Iran to Pakistan. Washington has also brushed aside the impression that it has changed its position on the matter.
“We support Pakistan government’s plans to meet its energy shortages, but that does not mean we have approved the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project,” said US embassy spokesman Alberto Rodriguez on Monday. “We have conveyed our concerns to the government of Pakistan,” he told The Express Tribune in response to media reports suggesting that the US is no longer opposing the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project. Rodriguez, however, did not elaborate.
Washington wants to penalise Iran over its alleged ambitions to seek atom bomb by pressing Pakistan not to enter into economic venture with Tehran. India, which was also part of the original plan, has already done so in exchange of securing a civilian nuclear deal with the US. The Obama Administration has so far spurned similar request from Pakistan, but has offered to assist it in obtaining Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and electricity from Tajikistan via Afghanistan if it abandoned the Iranian pipeline project. The project, costing nearly $8 billion, has already been signed between Pakistan and Iran. If everything goes well, Pakistan would start getting natural gas by 2014.
In June this year, President Barrack Obama signed into law the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act that could potentially create problem for Pakistan and its companies, which are in process of importing gas from Iran. Under the legislation, the US can bar foreign companies from the American financial system and markets if they continue to do business with Iranian entities, which are involved in the energy sector.
US Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke was on record in saying that it would be “a disaster if an agreement was reached which then triggered something under the law.” However, Pakistan is trying to downplay the US concerns, saying the Obama Administration is well aware of the fact that its opposition to the project would not go down well with the public here.
“Pakistan is a sovereign country and we take decisions in our own national interests,” remarked Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit. The spokesman told The Express Tribune that the US sanctions on Iran are not applicable to its gas sector. “Therefore, Pakistan is of the view that the sanctions on Iran do not have an impact on the gas pipeline project,” he insisted.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2010.