Iran-Pakistan to Start Pipe Talks: Report
Iran and Pakistan may begin a new round of talks in September related to the deadlocked Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline, built in 2014, The Nation reported August 6.
According to the Pakistani newspaper's report, an Iranian delegation was ready to come to Pakistan, but the Pakistani caretaker government believed that the decisions on the IP project should be made by the next elected government. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, led by Imran Khan, emerged as the largest party in the election held last month. He is expected to be sworn-in as Pakistan’s prime minister this month.
“Both sides would put their heads together to find out the way out how to proceed for implementation of the project in the presence of the US sanctions. President Trump is hell bent upon the deviating from the US-Iran nuclear deal earlier done during Obama regime. So, under the new scenario, the top mandarins of both the countries would also work out new timelines for the project’s completion,” an official told the newspaper.
In February, Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said Pakistan had deferred Iranian gas imports for so long that Tehran is considering referring Islamabad to the international arbitration court. As per the agreement signed between the two nations, Pakistan should have started taking 22mn m3/d (8bn m3/yr) of Iranian gas imports in January 2015, the line having been completed the month before.
Pakistan and Iran have already agreed to review the gas sales purchase agreement signed in 2009.