Pakistan-Iran Gas Pipeline Project beyond the purview of limitations: Basit

• Dialogue must to settle issues relating Iran’s nuclear program
• Zardari to represent Pakistan at SCO summit

Nisar Ahmed Thokar

Islamabad, June 10: Terming Pakistan-Iran Gas Pipeline contract as purely a commercial pact the foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit has said that the agreement signed by the two countries recently was beyond the purview of the limitations being imposed on Iran by the United Nations Security Council.

“As for as the Gas Pipeline Project is concerned this is purely a commercial agreement that is beyond the purview of the limitations”, Basit said this during a weekly press briefing in Islamabad today. He said that there were 37 operative paragraphs of the resolution which were relating to the sanctions against Iran’s nuclear and Ballistic Missile program and these sanction will have no bearing upon the project whatsoever.

Stressing the need for a negotiated settlement of Iran’s nuclear issue, the foreign office spokesman said, “Pakistan has always called for a negotiated settlement of the issues surrounding to Iran’s nuclear program”. He maintained that Pakistan would continue to encourage all parties concerned to re-engage in a purposeful diplomacy to settle difference in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration.

To a query about Israel’s nuclear program he said that during an international conference held in New York recently there was a resolution calling for a nuclear-free zone (Middle East) and “I think international community needs to act upon the said resolution to achieve the objective”.

When asked about American state department official’s statement that instead of Kashmir issue it would be the issue of terrorism that would figure on top of the agenda on the 15^th July meeting the foreign office spokesperson said that trust-deficit, which existed between the two countries was not a new phenomena and “it is there for decades due to many reasons”. He however added that there was a dire need to bridge this trust-deficit to move forward positively. “This is what we intend to do when the foreign ministers of our two countries would be meeting in Islamabad next month”, he added.

With regard to Chinese vice premier’s visit to Islamabad he said that for last two years the two countries have focused on augmenting bilateral relationship in order to bring them at par with our political relations. The Chinese vice premier who is in-charge of energy and other matters he said had had very significant discussions with Pakistani leaders and hoped that his tour to the country would serve good purpose in completing the projects that were already in place and the projects that were in the pipeline.

He said that president Zardari would be visiting china soon adding that such engagements were going on and the two countries were moving in the right direction. When asked about the possibility of any civil nuclear deal between the two countries he said that the there were various projects in place but refused to comment on the specific issue.

Referring to president Zardar’s visit to Tashkent he said that besides attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit President Asif Ali Zardari will hold separate meetings with President of Russia, China, Uzbekistan and other dignitaries. He said that Pakistan attaches great importance to the CEO forum and hopes that the summit would help to bolster peace and stability in the region.