WASHINGTON, April 10: The United States opposes the proposed Iran gas project, but the decision to build or not to build the pipeline will have to be taken by the countries involved, says the US State Department.
The US reaction follows recent announcements by senior Iranian, Indian and Pakistani officials that they are committed to building the $7 billion pipeline.
“We’ve made our views clear on that,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters when asked to comment on these reports.
“But ultimately, it’s going to be for the states of that region to decide.”
The United States opposes the project, saying that it violates a 1996 law that requires the US president to impose sanctions on any international firm that invests $40 million or more in oil or gas projects with Iran.
The 1,500-km-long pipeline, if materialised, will bring two billion cubic feet of gas per day from Iran to South Asia.
Although both India and Pakistan are close US allies, they appear willing to ignore the threat of sanctions to build this pipeline as their energy needs grow.
Mr McCormack acknowledged that “clearly there’s a lot of demand for energy among those nations (as) they have growing economies, growing populations.”
India and Pakistan, he said, will to have to decide for themselves “as to how they meet those energy needs with respect to Iran … as a possible supplier of (their) energy needs.”
Asked to comment on a decision taken at the SAARC conference in New Delhi last week to form a group, which also includes Iran, to meet the region’s energy needs, the State Department spokesman said: “It's going to be up to others to decide for themselves how they arrange themselves and how they group themselves.”
