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WASHINGTON: The US State Department said on Friday that it would not predict if the proposed Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project would succeed but noted that it had seen many ‘false starts’ before.
“If, in fact, the pipeline does go forward — and there have been a lot of false starts and backing-and-forthing on that — you know, we have issues of concern. And we’ve been very clear about those with the government of Pakistan,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told a briefing in Washington.
A journalist referred to President Asif Ali Zardari’s comments that if any country attacked Iran, Pakistan would support Iran in that fight and asked for her comments.
“The goal of the process that we are engaged in, the two-track process of pressure and openness to talks under the right circumstances, is designed to ensure that we can solve this diplomatically and it doesn’t come to the scenario that you referred,” Ms Nuland said.
“And what is the State Department’s view of the trilateral meeting that was held yesterday?” asked another journalist.
“The degree to which it helps these countries to do better as neighbours, that’s a good thing. The degree to which it gets everybody supportive of a process of Afghan-to-Afghan reconciliation, that’s a good thing.
“The degree to which it allows them to talk about issues that have been difficult among them, including some of the concerns that we have about Iran’s activity in Afghanistan, that’s a good thing,” Ms Nuland replied.
A journalist reminded her that India, Pakistan, Russia and China were still doing business with Iran and asked her how the US was going to deal with all these countries.
“We are engaged in conversations with all of these governments with regard to the importance of implementing existing international sanctions, national sanctions, and also doing what they can to increase sanctions, particularly to wean themselves from Iranian crude. So this is a process. It’s still going on,” she said.
Responding to a question about a resolution passed by the Pakistani parliament, asking the US to stop interfering in its internal matters, Ms Nuland said: “We’re not seeking to interfere in their internal issues. We are not.”
Ms Nuland rejected media reports that the US might have used Pakistan or Afghanistan to send a message to Iran during the trilateral meeting. “We did not,” she said.
