US Mounts Pressure on Pakistan Over IP Pipeline

In the face of mounting pressure and threats from the Obama administration, Islamabad is insisting that it will complete a long-delayed project to build a pipeline to import natural gas from Iran.

Speaking Monday, Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said that Islamabad must pursue all available means to address the country’s chronic and ever-worsening energy crisis. In addition to brushing aside a threat from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of reprisals if Islamabad did not drop the pipeline project, Khar warned that a military attack on Iran, Pakistan’s eastern neighbor, would have “disastrous consequences” for the entire region.

In testimony before a US House committee February 29, Clinton warned that if Pakistan proceeds with the pipeline project, it will be subject to the punitive measures of the Iran Sanctions Act, which empowers the US government to impose economic sanctions on any foreign (non-US) company which invests more than $20 million in Iran’s energy sector. “We have been very clear in pointing out the consequences of building this pipeline,” said Clinton. She underlined the seriousness of the US sanction threat by pointing to the precarious state of the Pakistani economy. “[This] would be particularly damaging to Pakistan because their economy is already quite shaky,” said Clinton. “This additional pressure … would further undermine their economic status.” MORE