March 9, 2006
TEHRAN ; Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian, deputy oil minister for international affairs on Wednesday declared the first trilateral meeting of Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) joint working group (JWG) will be held here on March 14 and 15.
He also announced the first meeting of Iran-Pakistan joint working group on Iran-India-Pakistan gas pipeline will be held in Tehran on March 12.
Given how myopic American news is , I dont expect this storey to hit till next week when the first IPI meeting takes place. But when it does i'm going to sit back with a bowl of popcorn.
You see what all the links below boil down to is this. Iran (member of the Axis of Evil and current Nuclear rogue state of the week) is building a natural gas pipeline through Pakistan to India which will supply both Pakistan and India with NG. There was some specualtion that the reason Bush gave India such a favourable Nuclear energy deal was to derail this pipline.
However both Pres Musharaff and his Prime Minister have stated that regardless of India's plan ,they will go ahead with the pipeline. I wonder what Bush would say about our ally in the War on Terror ? i mean isnt Bush trying to isolate Iran at this moment ?
Furthermore India has remained mum on the deal. As of last month they were positive but they've gone silent over the past few days. The iranians however remain cheerful and make no indications that India has pulled out of the deal.
I just wonder how Fox news with thier black and white take on the news will be able to seperate our 'friends' from our 'enemies' when the deal goes down next week..
some quotes
The White House said on Tuesday it still opposes a proposed natural gas pipeline linking energy-rich Iran with India, clarifying remarks by President George W. Bush that seemed to soften U.S. opposition to the project.
Bush had seemed to suggest a shift in policy when he said during a visit to Pakistan on Friday that "our beef with Iran is not the pipeline, our beef with Iran is the fact that they want to develop a nuclear weapon."
India and Iran have been discussing a $7 billion natural gas pipeline that would run through Pakistan.
Iran has the second-largest natural gas reserves in the world behind Russia -- about 940 trillion cubic feet. Growing Asian economies, including India and Pakistan, are scrambling to find energy sources to feed industrial expansion.
"As we stated before, the U.S. government does not support the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline," said White House National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones
President General Pervez Musharraf said on Monday that Pakistan will get Iran gas as the country needs energy.
"This gas pipeline is our requirement and we will get it," President Musharraf told newspapers editors and senior journalists.
"If there is delay, it is because of trilateral arrangement." Pakistan along with trilateral arrangement will also go on the bilateral track for the gas pipeline from Iran, he said.
He said there was no reference or discussion before and during the visit of President Bush on Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipe line project.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam told the weekly press briefing that Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project is very much intact and Pakistan is fully committed and will remain committed to it .
Reuters
IRNA
Teheran Times