Pakistan says Iran gas pipeline the easiest option

[allemand]

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Islamabad regards a $4 billion gas pipeline stretching from Iran through Pakistan to India as the easiest of several options to pipe gas to the subcontinent, Pakistan's foreign minister said on Thursday.

"At the moment it seems as if the Iranian (plan) is the easiest to implement," Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri told reporters on a visit to Malaysia when asked about progress on separate proposals for gas pipelines from Turkmenistan, Iran and Qatar. (...)

On a recent trip to Asia, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told India the United States had concerns over the Iranian pipeline deal. The concerns are reported to stem from U.S. opposition to Iran's nuclear program.

Pakistan and India, which are looking to resolve some of their differences and improve relations, may jointly lobby Washington to ease its concerns over the project, Kasuri said.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=8540570

"US wants gas pipeline from Turkmenistan, not from Iran" (March 2005)

The Dawn, 25 March 2005
By Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON, March 24: The United States wants India and Pakistan to build a gas pipeline but instead of Iran it should come from Turkmenistan, says an influential Indo-American newspaper.

Quoting diplomatic sources, the India Abroad newspaper reports in its latest issue that the US had conveyed its desire for the construction of this new gas pipeline to India even before Secretary of State visited New Delhi last week and publicly acknowledged that Washington did not want India to buy gas from Iran.

The influential weekly newspaper says the pipeline Washington wants built will come from Turkmenistan -- through Afghanistan and Pakistan -- to India. The report says that the US was initially quiet on India's efforts to buy gas from Iran because it wanted to remove New Delhi's objections to a pipeline through Pakistan and once this was achieved, Washington began to push the alternative project, the Turkmenistan pipeline. (...)

The first salvo in this game was fired by the US Ambassador to India, David Mulford, who 'gently' warned the Indians that the US will not look too kindly upon the gas pipeline from Iran. This was followed by the message delivered by Secretary Rice who expressed her reservations over the possibility of a pipeline from Iran.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1340592

[Frederik]

1. Ha ha

Hope India and Pakistan agree to build it through Iran, because I know how much frustration that will cause in Washington. This was probably one of the main reasons for invading Afghanistan, after all. I bet Condi's masters in ChevronTexaco are going to be mighty angry if she fails in this mission.

The Pakistanis are obviously right anyway. It makes much more sense to build a pipeline through Iran than through the mountainous regions of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. It's what, twice the distance?

[bigtree]

2. Pakistan, Iran

and China. Brothers.

Rice, Bush, nor anyone else can seperate these three allies. With the record oil finds in China and Iran, there will be no need by these countries to kowtow to any oil strong-arming by the U.S. or our allies.