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Sunday, December 24, 2006
IPI gasline will be completed at all costs, says MusharrafISLAMABAD: No pressure will be tolerated on the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project, President General Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday.
Talking to Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, who briefed him about his meetings with Iranian President Mehmood Ahmadinejad, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani during his recent visit to Iran, the president said that Pakistan wanted progress on the tripartite gas pipeline project, and hoped that the three countries would resolve the pricing issue soon.
President Musharraf said that Pakistan urgently needed energy to sustain the pace of its industrial development. He said that energy talks with other countries were also in progress, but it didn’t mean that Pakistan was not interested in the IPI project. He expressed the hope that India would show interest in the completion of the project and added that Pakistan would go for the project even without India.
About the Iranian nuclear issue, President Musharraf said Pakistan supported talks between the European Union and Iran and wanted a diplomatic solution to the problem. He said that the use of force against Tehran would destabilise the entire Middle East. online
Courtesy DailyTimes.com.pk