Pipeline politics

Iran and Pakistan have launched the so-called “pipe of peace”. Does it spell trouble for TAPI, the pipeline that runs through Afghanistan?

Iran and Pakistan have launched the so-called “pipe of peace”. Does it spell trouble for TAPI, the pipeline that runs through Afghanistan?
Tehran has agreed to lend Islamabad 500 million USD for the project. Iranian contractors who have constructed the pipeline up to the country’s border will extend it 750-km, across Pakistani territory.
The US has threatened to impose sanctions if the project “actually goes forward”. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told the press, “We have serious concerns if this project actually goes forward that the Iran Sanctions Act would be triggered.”
The spokesperson added, “We have heard this pipeline announced about 10 or 15 times in the past. So we have to see what actually happens.”
The idea of the project was conceived in the 1990s. It initially involved Iran, Pakistan and India, but the latter pulled out in 2009, citing cost and security concerns, but there was stiff US opposition to both Pakistan and India’s involvement in the project. The US, which was behind the UN-imposed sanctions on Iran for its nuclear programme, has been doing its best to isolate Iran.
This week Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Washington has no grounds to threaten sanctions since the pipeline project deals with natural gas.
Will Pakistan be able to withstand US pressure?
Earlier Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Moazzam Khan had promised Islamabad would not withdraw from the project. “Pakistan will never surrender to external pressure,” he was quoted saying in the Afghan media.
Pakistani officials have justified their involvement in two international pipeline deals saying they have a serious energy shortage. Pakistan is also a partner with Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and India in the ambitious TAPI project to pipe Caspian Sea gas. The project has not made much progress because of mutual suspicions among partners. Preliminary technical work was meant to start in 2012. Authorities in the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Industry say that disagreement with Turkmenistan over the transit fee for the gas is among the reasons for the delay.
Ruhullah Ruhani, economic analyst, appealed to the government to give TAPI priority. “If Afghanistan becomes a safe transit and trade route for northern and southern it would mean stability and development in Afghanistan.”