Deepening ties between Iran and Pakistan are triggering expressions of concerns – and, in the case of sanctions-busting energy deals, explicit warnings – from U.S. officials.
Iranian media reported this week on overtures by Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, which involved emphasizing – according to state-controlled Press TV – “the cultural, historical and political affinities between Iran and Pakistan.” Iran has long looked to Pakistan as a way to circumvent Western efforts to squeeze its energy market. In late January Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior foreign affairs adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, told Pakistani officials that Iran considers support for Pakistan a “strategic policy.”
A formal agreement to build an Iranian-Pakistani gas pipeline dates back to February, when Pakistan’s state-owned Inter-State Gas Systems signed a contract with an Iranian firm to begin building one (the same month also saw a senior advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez announcing that Iran would build an oil refinery in Pakistan capable of refining 400,000 barrels per day).
U.S. diplomats were at the time alarmed by the pipeline deal. U.S. Consul General Michael Dodman said that the pipeline was against U.S. law. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland noted the existence of alternative “large-scale energy projects” and emphasized that the U.S.’s believes Pakistan ought to “avoid activities that could be prohibited by UN sanctions or that could be sanctionable under U.S. law.”
The project subsequently encountered financing and logistical problems, generating hopes that energy sanctions against Iran – which U.S. diplomats more and more credit with forcing Iran to offer concessions on its nuclear program – would hold. Pakistani media outlets are reporting, however, that the Russians have now offered to build the pipeline:
Russia is ready to execute the Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project, ignoring the US sanctions on Iran, a Russian minister has revealed in a meeting with Pakistan’s petroleum minister in Islamabad. This will be done in view of the new Russian policy to look towards South Asia.To this effect, Gazprom, a state-owned Russian company or one of its subsidiaries will soon make a formal contact with the Government of Pakistan to execute the Pak-Iran gas pipeline project. This message has been clearly conveyed by a Russian delegation led by Yury Sentyurin, Deputy Minister of Energy, at a meeting with the Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, here on Wednesday, a top official who was part of the meeting told our sources.
[Photo: Geonews / YouTube]