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India can join the gas pipeline deal: Iran

DUBAI: Iran has said it is ready for India’s participation as a third partner in the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project that was finalised on Sunday. There would be no obstacle for India’s joining to the deal, Hassan Qashqavi, Irans Foreign Ministry spokesman, was on Monday quoted as saying by the State-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

Mr. Qashqavi told reporters that though Iran and Pakistan were presently the participants, any third country, including India, could also join the agreement.

Iranian officials have earlier said that they were also looking at the possibility of China joining the project.

Mr. Qashqavi said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari finalised the gas pipeline agreement.

On Sunday, the IRNA was categorical in stating that the two Presidents had signed the deal.

On Monday, the semi-official Fars News Agency said the two countries had signed an initial agreement on the gas export pipeline project.

Iran’s Oil Ministry website SHANA quoted Asim Hossein, adviser to Pakistan’s Prime Minister, as saying that the two countries on Sunday had signed a governmental framework agreement as well as a final consultative process document.

The deal in its final form would be formally signed within 15 days in a third country.

A senior Iranian Oil Ministry official said Iran had already completed construction of the main portion of the pipeline from Asalouyeh,

the source of the gas, to Iranshahr near the Iran-Pakistan border.

The project as originally proposed had envisaged construction of 1,100 km of pipeline in Iran, 1,000 km in Pakistan and 600 km in India.

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