Islamabad: Pakistan and Iran will finalise an agreement on a multi-billion dollar gas pipeline project that also involves India by January 25,Iran's ambassador to Pakistan has said.

"The Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project is one of the most important economic projects in the region, which will bring extensive benefits for the three countries," Ambassador Mashallah Shakeri said.

Pointing out that the measures taken by Pakistan and Iran showed their "firm will" for executing the project, Shakeri told a local news agency that the bilateral agreement between the two countries will be finalised by January 25. Shakeri hoped that India would also join the project and it would be pursued trilaterally. Iran had started executing the project by laying the pipeline from its gas reserves to the frontier with Pakistan, he said.

Asked about Iran's apprehensions regarding the political unrest in Pakistan, Shakeri said: "Iran wants a peaceful, developed, independent and stable Pakistan, and it will leave no stone unturned to extend every essential assistance that its brotherly neighbouring country needs."

Pakistan and Iran, he said, were also enhancing their economic relations and had increased their target for trade to be enhanced from USD 650 million to USD one billion a year. Shakeri also said Iran was pursuing multilateral talks with the international community for its peaceful nuclear programme.

Iran is cooperating with international groups, including the International Atomic Energy Agency, on its nuclear programme by going "even beyond its legal obligations" he said. 

Source : PTI