Pakistan on Thursday (21/3) said it did not need an exemption from US sanctions to build part of a pipeline to import natural gas from Iran.
“It is part of a pipeline that is being built inside Pakistan. So, we are not sure if there is currently any room for discussion or exclusion from third parties,” said Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, spokesperson for Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in response to VOA questions at the weekly press conference.
Donald Lu, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, said Wednesday that his department was monitoring plans to build a pipeline between Iran and Pakistan. He said in a meeting with the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Pakistan did not ask for an exemption from sanctions to trade gas with Iran.
“We also have not heard from the Pakistani government regarding any desire to (obtain) permission for exemption from American sanctions caused by such a project,” Lu said.
Last month, Pakistan's interim government gave approval to begin construction of an 80-kilometer section of the pipeline, largely to avoid paying Iran billions of dollars in fines over years of delays on the $7 billion project.
Pakistan and Iran have been involved in talks to build a natural gas pipeline between the two countries since the mid-1990s.
The two signed a Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement in June 2009 for a pipeline that would supply 750 million to 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day to Pakistan from Iran's South Pars oil field.
The two countries then held an inauguration ceremony in the border area in 2013 to start development in Pakistan. Iran itself began construction of a pipeline in its territory in 2010.
While Iran claimed that it had completed construction of a 900-kilometer pipeline in 2011, construction of a pipeline in the same project had not yet begun on Pakistani territory.
Islamabad delayed the project several times because Pakistani officials feared the country would face US sanctions for importing gas from Iran. Tehran itself is under US sanctions because of its nuclear program. (ps/lt/rs)