News
March 22, 2024
No Need for US Waiver to Build Gas Pipeline with Iran, Pakistan Says
By Sarah Zaman
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said Thursday that it does not need a waiver from US sanctions to build its portion of a pipeline to import natural gas from Iran.
"It is a segment of the pipeline which is being built inside Pakistani territory. So, we do not believe that at this point there is room for any discussion or waiver from a third party," Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said in response to a VOA question at the weekly news briefing.
Donald Lu, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, said Wednesday that the department was monitoring the planned pipeline between Iran and Pakistan. He told a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that Islamabad had not requested a sanctions waiver to conduct gas trade with Iran.
"We have also not heard from the government of Pakistan [on a] desire for any waiver for American sanctions that would certainly result from such a project," Lu said.
Last month, Pakistan's outgoing caretaker government gave approval to begin construction of an 80-kilometer section of the pipeline, largely to avoid paying Iran billions of dollars in penalties for years of delays on the $7 billion project.
Pipeline's history
Pakistan and Iran have been in talks to build a gas pipeline between the two countries since the mid-1990s.
The two sides signed a Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement in June 2009 for a pipeline that would supply 750 million to 1 billion cubic feet per day of gas to energy-starved Pakistan from Iran's South Pars Field.
The two sides held an inauguration ceremony at the border in 2013 for construction on the Pakistani side. Iran had already begun work on its side in 2010.
While Iran claimed it had completed construction of 900 kilometers of the pipeline on its side by 2011, construction has not started on Pakistani side until now.
Islamabad suspended the project multiple times as officials cited concerns that Pakistan would invite US sanctions for importing energy from Iran. Tehran faces US banking sanctions for its nuclear program.
Over the years, Iran repeatedly threatened to take Pakistan into international arbitration and slap it with a penalty of nearly $18 billion for breach of contract. Just as time was running out for Islamabad to meet Tehran's deadline of commencing construction by March 2024, the country's outgoing government green-lighted the project.
In the approved first phase, Pakistan will construct an 80-kilometer section of the pipeline from its border with Iran to its port city of Gwadar in the southwestern province of Balochistan… - VOA
Courtesy VOA
Back to Pakistanlink Home