Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar’s statement that US sanctions are irrelevant to the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline serves as a good reiteration of the ground reality regarding the actual status of the project. It also indicates that fear or force of foreign pressure is now dissipating and we could see timely construction of the project.
But where she has done well to make that point apparent, Washington has to take notice of this fact and stop making statements intimidating Islamabad with talk of sanctions. There is besides no use on the part of the Obama administration to keep on harping that the project invokes sanctions because that would only bring into sharp relief its unwarranted finger pointing. Continued pressure would hence not only be seen as an attempt to isolate Iran but also to deprive Pakistan of its most basic need to prevent its commerce and industry from crumbling. It is little wonder that with policies of the sort, there has been no letup in the growing anti-Americanism, particularly in countries which feel clearly discriminated against.