Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani says Pakistan will go ahead with a plan to import natural gas from Iran even if the US levies additional sanctions on the Mideast country. Gilani's comments Tuesday come two days after the US special envoy to Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said new sanctions being finalized by Congress could affect the deal with Iran. The prime minister said Pakistan would reconsider the gas deal if it violated UN sanctions, but not those levied unilaterally by the US. “As far as the US is concerned, we are not bound to follow these (sanctions) but if these are put in place by the United Nations, we will consider these under the obligation of international laws,” he was quoted as saying. Iran inked a contract earlier this month to export 21.5 million cubic meters (760 million cubic feet) of gas per day to Pakistan through a new pipeline beginning in 2014. The construction of the pipeline is estimated to cost some $7 billion. Gilani “clarified his remarks” at a lunch hosted for lawmakers in Islamabad on Tuesday, state news agency Associated Press of Pakistan said. US regional envoy Richard Holbrooke said Sunday he had warned Pakistan against signing a gas pipeline deal with Iran, saying the United States was preparing laws that could affect the project. Iran and Pakistan last week formally signed an export deal which commits Tehran to selling natural gas to its eastern neighbor from 2014. Iran has already constructed 907 km of the pipeline between Asalooyeh, in southern Iran, and Iranshahr, which will carry natural gas from Iran's giant South Pars field. The pipeline was originally planned to connect Iran, Pakistan and India, but the latter pulled out of the project last year. Pakistan suffers from a debilitating energy crisis and plans to use the gas purchased from Iran for its power sector. The Obama administration last week added Iranian individuals and firms to a blacklist as part of US and European efforts to tighten the screws on Iran a week after UN approved sanctions against its nuclear program. The new US sanctions target insurance companies, oil firms and shipping lines linked to Iran's nuclear or missile programs as well as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Iran's defence minister Ahmad Vahidi.
