Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai are slated for state visits to Tehran, to participate in the international conference on terrorism at the invitation of Iran's President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. The conference is scheduled for June 25-26, but Zardari is arriving for a two-day visit on Thursday.
Zardari is taking a delegation of ministers that includes Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Minister for Oil and Natural Resources Asim Hussain and Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar.
Iranian media reports that Zardari's talks will cover the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, which is strongly opposed by the US, and that a "decisive step for the execution of the already delayed project" can be expected during his visit. Iran has already completed the construction of 1,000 kilometers of the pipeline out of the 1,100 kilometers portion on Iranian soil.
Iran has also proposed an electricity transmission network be built next to the pipeline, connecting the electricity grid of Iran with that of Pakistan. Additionally, Iran has offered to sell 1,000 megawatts hours of electricity to Pakistan at a subsidized rate.
Source: M K Bhadrakumar at Asia Times Online.
A full reading of Bhadrakumar's article "A summit in Tehran trumps the US" and the potential geopolitical shift it details can be found here.
With the rate of development in the region, in about 10 years time, the US will be more isolated than ever in the region.
ReplyDeleteGunboat, F-16, Apache diplomacy is so 19th century and doesn't work in the long term.
Iran's smart diplomacy with her neighbors only strengthens the security in the region and foils any divide-and-rule schemes by the US and her assorted "allies".
Hopefully Pakistan can assist our glorious engineers and scientists assemble a bomb quickly & then the world will finally respect us!
ReplyDeletestrange. i thought Iran was economically crippled, diplomatically isolated, politically defensive, etc.
ReplyDeleteguess i should stop paying attention to the mainstream news.
Yes you should
ReplyDelete