COLOMBO – Sri Lanka will sidestep US-led sanctions against Iran by diverting its oil payments towards a water management project that Tehran is funding in the island, a senior official was quoted as saying on Sunday.
Two billion rupees ($15.38 million) owed to Iran for oil will be used to finance the Uma Oya irrigation scheme, Sri Lankan water resources secretary Ivan de Silva told the local Sunday Times.
Iran had pledged some $450 million for the water project in 2008 but implementation had been delayed due to lack of cash. “Because of the US sanctions there is a delay in transferring funds from Iran to Sri Lanka,” Silva said, adding that both governments had agreed to the deal.
The US-led sanctions aimed at spurring Tehran to abandon its nuclear programme have hurt Sri Lanka, which is geared to refine only Iranian light crude. Sri Lanka imported 92 per cent of its crude oil from Iran before the sanctions begn earlier this year.
Tehran insists its nuclear programme is only for civilian use and refuses to abandon its uranium enrichment activities.
m ec�v� �� een completed on the Indo-Bangla border, while 1,958 km of total sanctioned 2,043 km of fencing had been completed on the Indo-Pak frontier.
