In this Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012 photo, Drivers queue at a gas station in Islamabad, Pakistan. It has become a familiar site across Pakistan in recent weeks: Long lines of cars and minibuses snaking for hundreds of yards as their frustrated drivers wait to fill up their tanks with natural gas. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
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In this Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012 photo, Drivers queue at a gas station in Islamabad, Pakistan. It has become a familiar site across Pakistan in recent weeks: Long lines of cars and minibuses snaking for hundreds of yards as their frustrated drivers wait to fill up their tanks with natural gas. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
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In this picture taken on Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012, Pakistanis queue in line near a gas station in Islamabad, Pakistan. It has become a familiar site across Pakistan in recent weeks: Long lines of cars and minibuses snaking for hundreds of yards as their frustrated drivers wait to fill up their tanks with natural gas. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
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In this Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012 photo, Drivers queue at a gas station in Islamabad, Pakistan. It has become a familiar site across Pakistan in recent weeks: Long lines of cars and minibuses snaking for hundreds of yards as their frustrated drivers wait to fill up their tanks with natural gas. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
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In this Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012 photo, Pakistanis queue in line near a gas station in Karachi, Pakistan. It has become a familiar site across Pakistan in recent weeks: Long lines of cars and minibuses snaking for hundreds of yards as their frustrated drivers wait to fill up their tanks with natural gas. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)
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Pakistani police officers stand guards on a shipping container placed to block the supporters of Pakistani Sunni Muslim cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, to enter into high security area Red Zone during an anti government rally in Islamabad, Pakistan Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013. Thousands of Pakistanis fed up with political leaders they say are corrupt and indifferent rallied in the Pakistani capital Tuesday, as the fiery cleric who organized the rally called for the government to resign and for his followers to remain on the streets until then. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
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Supporters of Pakistani Sunni Muslim cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, rest in a cold weather at an anti government rally in Islamabad, Pakistan Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013. Thousands of Pakistanis fed up with political leaders they say are corrupt and indifferent rallied in the Pakistani capital Tuesday, as the fiery cleric who organized the rally called for the government to resign and for his followers to remain on the streets until then. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
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Supporters of Pakistani Sunni Muslim cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, listen to their leader at a rally in Islamabad, Pakistan Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013. Qadri said that the current government had lost their mandate and therefore he gave them a deadline till morning to resign from their assemblies on their own. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
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Supporters of Pakistani Sunni Muslim cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri listen to a speech by ul-Qadri, unshown, at an anti-government rally in Islamabad, Pakistan on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013. Thousands of anti-government protesters are rallying in the streets of Pakistani capital for second day despite early-morning clashes with police who fired shots and tear gas to disperse the crowd. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
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FILE -- In this Friday, June 22, 2012 file photo, Pakistan's Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf waves in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of the country's prime minister as part of a corruption case involving private power stations, officials said Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File)
Pakistan to complete Iran gas pipeline project
ISLAMABAD (
AP) — Pakistan's Foreign Ministry says the
government will complete a gas pipeline from neighboring Iran despite U.S. opposition to the project.
Ministry spokesman Moazzam Ali Khan said Thursday that President Asif Ali Zardari will travel to Tehran on Monday for the project's groundbreaking ceremony.
Khan said the pipeline is in Pakistan's interest and that Islamabad will go ahead with it.
Washington opposes the project because it wants to isolate Iran economically to pressure Tehran over its dispute nuclear program, which the U.S. suspects is aimed at developing atomic weapons. Tehran denies the charge, saying its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Pakistan faces acute energy shortages and the pipeline would deliver natural gas from Iran to energy-starved Pakistan by 2014.
Tags:
foreign ministry, asif ali zardari, benazir bhutto, moazzam ali khan, culture_politics, petroleum, iran, project, natural gas, tehran, pakistan, islamabad, nuclear program, peaceful purposes, president of pakistan, gas pipeline, atomic weapons, president asif ali, pakistan peoples party, energy-starved pakistan, u.s. opposition, iran gas pipeline, acute energy shortages, dispute nuclear program, pressure tehran
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