Achi news desk-
- Pakistan will make its case vigorously: petroleum minister.
- In February, the caretaker governor decided to complete the gas line project.
- Pakistan will also lobby for a US waiver: Malik.
Islamabad has decided to approach Washington to seek a waiver on the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik said on Monday.
“Pakistan will vigorously present its case and seek exemption from US sanctions by presenting technical and political arguments,” he said in an informal chat with the media.
In February this year, the caretaker government had decided to complete the gas line project in its territory under two phases and carved out a plan to first lay the 81km section of the pipeline from Gwadar, a point where Iran has already laid its part of the water pipe. pipeline from the gas field.
Iran has already extended the deadline of 180 days to September 2024 to Pakistan. If Islamabad authorities fail to respond positively, Tehran will move International Arbitration from Paris to seek a penalty of $18 billion.
In today’s media interaction, the petroleum minister said that Pakistan will also lobby to get the US waiver to complete the long-delayed gas line project in its territory.
Malik said the country will start construction on the gas pipeline project soon.
The previous caretaker organization decided not to file the application for the US waiver because of the geopolitical situation, sources said.
A ministerial oversight committee took decisions related to the Pak-Iran gas pipeline project, they added.
The Biden administration has set a goal to stop the construction of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline while also communicating with Islamabad about its red lines on Tehran’s nuclear proliferation ambitions.
“We have warned them about our red lines, legislatively, but also in terms of how we cooperate with Pakistan,” Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu told a Congressional panel during a Congressional hearing on Pakistan.
“If they go to bed with Iran, it will be very serious for our relationship,” Lu said when Congressman Brad Schneider asked about US messages about Pakistan’s engagement with Tehran on security issues, especially in joint -the subject of mutual concerns about nuclear proliferation in Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran and its relations with Pakistan, particularly regarding the proposed gas pipeline, continued to be of interest to many members of the congressional panel at the hearing.
The project has been facing delays since 2014. In January, Iran issued a third notice to Islamabad, renewing its intention to move the arbitration court for not laying the pipeline as part of the IP gas line project.
The news reported that Pakistan claims that it could not realize the project in its territory because of the sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran, a position that authorities in Tehran have never subscribed to, saying that there is no justification for the sanctions of the United States. Iraq and Turkey have long been using Iranian gas as they have managed waivers on US sanctions.
It may be noted here that Iran has already completed the installation of a 900 kilometer pipeline. The project agreement was signed in 2009 and was due to be completed in 2015.
