The US has once again expressed reservations over the Pak-Iran gas pipeline project, hoping that Pakistan would not go in a direction that caused sanctions to kick in.
Addressing a press conference on Thursday, spokeswoman for the State Department Victoria Nuland said the US was making efforts to help resolve energy crisis in Pakistan and to advance Mangla and Jamshoro power plants.
She said gas pipeline accord with Iran was against UN sanctions.
“Just to be absolutely clear again, if this deal is finalised for a proposed Iran-Pakistan pipeline, it would raise serious concerns under our Iran Sanctions Act. We’ve made that absolutely clear to our Pakistani counterparts. And just to say again that Iran has proven again and again that it is not a reliable partner,” she emphasised.
The spokeswoman admitted that Pakistan had a lot of energy requirements and the US was working with them in close partnership on other better ways to meet those needs, through the TAPI pipeline, by supporting large-scale energy projects like the 900-megawatt power grid by 2013, or by renovating power plants in Tarbela, Mangla Dams, modernising the thermal power plants in Guddu and Muzafaragarh.
She said the US was also assisting in building new dams at Satpara and Gomal Zam. She was of the opinion that this was the right direction for Pakistan and the international community was prepared to be supportive for these projects.