LONDON, May 14: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that the gas pipeline from Iran to India through Pakistan can be ‘a force for peace’ in the region. “It is a force for peace in South Asia and we definitely want it to go ahead,” the prime minister was quoted as saying in an interview to leading British daily, Financial Times (FT), on Saturday.

Negotiations to build the $4.5 billion trilateral gas pipeline, which began in 1994, are still under way. “All feasibilities are now being looked at and by year-end we must decide which direction we are going to go, otherwise it is going to get too delayed,” Mr Aziz said.

“We’ve gone out of our way to de-link the pipeline from everything else to create interdependencies between the two countries. In my view, the energy corridor is more important than trade. Trade can be turned off, but once you have a permanent thing overseen by a credible treaty, it will stay for ever.

“We have many options and are sensitive to US concerns, but will act in our national interest,” he said. According to British daily, Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has been invited to visit Islamabad next month to discuss various options for the pipeline.

“Oatar and Turkmenistan could provide politically easier substitutes for Iranian gas, but both face considerable logistical difficulties that will push up costs,” said FT in its comments.

FT also quoted a Pakistani official as saying that “preliminary evaluations of the three projects favoured the gas pipeline from Iran. Financially and technically, this is the most straightforward,” it quoted the official, a member of the team assigned to assess all three proposals of importing gas from Iran, Qatar and Turkmenistan.—APP