CHAHBAHAR: President Asif Ali Zardari and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have jointly inaugurated the long-awaited $7.5 billion Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline at Iranian border city of Chahbahar on Monday despite the naked threat of US of possible sanctions, Dispatch News Desk (DND) reported.
Both presidents were accompanied at the groundbreaking ceremony by large delegations comprising ministers, top officials as well as representatives of several Arab states.
“Pipeline construction to transfer gas from the Islamic Republic to Pakistan … started at the zero point of the border in the presence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari,” Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported.
The ceremony would mark the beginning of work by an Iranian-Pakistani consortium on the 785-kilometre pipeline earmarked for the Pakistani side of the border, which is said to cost some $1.5 billion. The total length of the pipeline is 2775 kilometers.
Iran has already completed the 900-kilometer pipeline in its territory, while the laying of 785-kilometre -long Pakistani section will commence now.
An Iranian-Pakistani consortium will complete work on the project at a cost of seven point five billion dollars.
Pakistan will start receiving seven hundred fifty million cubic feet gas daily on completion of the project in December 2014.
The Pakistani government believes the project will help the country overcome the energy crisis and spur economic growth. However, the project has prompted several warnings of sanctions from the United States.
On Thursday, the US said that Pakistan should not go ahead with Iran-Pak gas pipeline deal as Iran is not a “reliable” partner and would also violate its sanctions on the country under Iran Sanctions Act (ISA).
“Just to be absolutely clear, if the deal for a proposed Iran-Pakistan pipeline is finalised, it would raise serious concerns under our Iran Sanctions Act. We’ve made that absolutely clear to our Pakistani counterparts,” spokesperson for the State Department, Victoria Nuland said on Thursday. “Iran has proven again and again that it is not a reliable partner,” she said.
However, On Sunday, the president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar brushed aside concerns and pressures of the United States, and said the whole world should realise that the project was being commissioned purely to meet economic needs of the country and was being executed by two sovereign states.
“The government is going to initiate this important project in view of the energy requirements. The project will bring economic prosperity, provide better opportunities to the people and help defeat militancy,” he said.
The Pakistani foreign office said earlier last week that the country is “not in a fix” on account of US pressure on Pakistan because of Iran being sanctioned.
“We are very clear about this project. It is in our national interest to go ahead with this project,” a foreign office spokesman told a press conference on Thursday. “Pakistan, being an energy deficient country, is hugely suffering both economically and socially.”
According to advisor to PM on petroleum, Dr. Asim Hussain, both the presidents would also sign an accord for 400,000-barrel capacity oil refinery in Gwadar today (Monday).
DND
