The US government in hostile remarks has warned Pakistan that its bilateral gas pipeline project with Iran could attract American sanctions.
The US had warned that it could invoke sanctions against the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project in future, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said without giving details.
He made the remarks while interacting with a delegation of the Pakistan Journalists Forum at his son’s home at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Day and Night News reported.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi announced last week Pakistan would continue work on the pipeline.
Iran and Pakistan officially inaugurated the construction phase of a gas pipeline project in March which is due to take Iran’s rich gas reserves to the energy-hungry South Asian nation.
The project kicked off in a ceremony attended by former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari at the two countries’ shared border region in Iran’s Southeastern city of Chabahar.
The 2700-kilometer long pipeline was to supply gas for Pakistan and India which are suffering a lack of energy sources, but India has evaded talks. In 2011, Iran and Pakistan declared they would finalize the agreement bilaterally if India continued to be absent in the meeting.
Iran has already constructed more than 900 kilometers of the pipeline on its soil.
According to the project proposal, the pipeline will begin from Iran’s Assalouyeh Energy Zone in the south and stretch over 1,100 km through Iran. In Pakistan, it will pass through Baluchistan and Sindh but officials now say the route may be changed if China agrees to the project.
