November 26, 2003	Wednesday	Shawwal 1, 1424

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NEW DELHI, Nov 25: Iran on Tuesday lent its weight to the peace process — that gathered momentum after Islamabad and New Delhi decided to observe a ceasefire on the Line of Control — promising that a proposed gas pipeline straddling Iran, Pakistan and India would be secure and legally binding on all parties concerned.

Iran’s junior foreign minister S.M.H. Adeli offered a further inducement by telling reporters here that Tehran would bear 60 per cent of the cost of laying the 2,670-kilometre-long pipeline, adding that a final draft report on the proposal being prepared by Australia’s Broken Hill Petroleum (BHP) would be on the table by mid-December.

“From (being a) pipe dream to dream project — this has been the change brought about in the viability of the Indo-Iran onshore pipeline project by Pakistan’s new willingness to participate, both as a buyer and as an investor,” said New Delhi- based Economic Times in an optimistic vein. “This, however, is if we discount the possibility of terrorists acting independently of the Government of Pakistan,” it added.

“BHP of Australia is currently working on the detailed feasibility report and we expect to get the final draft by mid- December,” said Mr Adeli, in Delhi to attend a World Economic Forum meeting.

“We are hoping to have a meeting with the Indian committee by early next year,” he said.

Iran, which has the second largest gas reserves in the world — holding 18 per cent of the total gas reserves, but produces only two per cent of its total reserves — is looking for new export markets.