Rouhani, Zardari reaffirm rapid construction of IP gas pipeline

Daily Times

Iran’s new President Hassan Rouhani and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari reiterated their countries’ determination to continue implementation of the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project.

“The joint project of building the gas pipeline can have a significant influence on increasing cooperation and economic relations between the two countries,” Rouhani said on Saturday. The Iranian president expressed the hope that the project would be completed as soon as possible. Zardari, for his part, said Islamabad respected all the agreements signed between Iran and Pakistan. Iran and Pakistan officially inaugurated the construction phase of the gas pipeline project in March. The project started in a ceremony attended by the former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari at the two countries’ shared border region in Iran’s southeastern city of Chabahar. The 2,700-kilometre long pipeline was to supply gas for Pakistan and India, which are suffering from a lack of energy sources, but India evaded the talks. In 2011, Iran and Pakistan declared they would finalise the agreement bilaterally if India continued to be absent in the meeting. Iran has already constructed more than 900 kilometres of the pipeline on its soil. According to the project proposal, the pipeline will begin from Iran’s Assalouyeh Energy Zone in the south and stretch over 1,100km through Iran. In Pakistan, it will pass through Balochistan and Sindh but officials now say the route may be changed if China becomes party to the project.