ISLAMABAD – Despite strong opposition from the US, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinijad on Monday inaugurated construction work of a long-delayed $7.5 billion gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan.
The inauguration ceremony of gas pipeline which will pass through Pakistan’s restive Baluchistan province was held in the Iranian border city of Chabahar. Presidents of both states came with delegations of ministers and top officials as well as representatives of several Arab states.
“The completion of the pipeline is in the interests of peace, security and progress of the two countries … it will also consolidate the economic, political and security ties of the two nations,” the two presidents said in a joint statement.
The work on the Iranian side is almost complete and Monday saw the construction work start on the Pakistani side. A total of 780km of pipeline is to be built in Pakistan by December 2014. Tehran has agreed to lend Islamabad $500 million, a third of the estimated $1.5 billion cost of the Pakistani section of the pipeline.
Ahmadinejad said that work on the new section of the pipeline was going ahead despite US sanctions against Iran’s oil and gas sector. “This gas pipeline is a sign of show of resistance against domination,” Ahmadinejad said.
“This pipeline has nothing to do with the nuclear issue, you can not build a nuclear bomb with natural gas,” he said, speaking alongside President Zardari which was broadcast live by Pakistani TV stations.
Dubbed the “peace pipeline”, talks on the project which was initially intended to carry gas on to India began in 1994. New Delhi pulled out in 2009 just a year after it signed a nuclear deal with Washington.
The project prompted several warnings of sanctions from the US. Washington says the pipeline would enable Tehran to sell more gas, undermining efforts to step up pressure over its nuclear activities. “If this deal is finalized for a proposed Iran-Pakistan pipeline, it would raise serious concerns under our Iran Sanctions Act. We’ve made that absolutely clear to our Pakistani counterparts,” state department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told the media last week.
But blackouts and power shortages becoming a pressing issue in Pakistan, the outgoing government insists it will not bow to pressure. Pakistani foreign office said earlier last week that the country is “not in a fix” due to US pressure on Pakistan because of the Iran sanctions.
