Iran, Pak to ink pipeline deal without India

Iran and Pakistan have finalised a deal on $7.4 billion gas pipeline project without the participation of India, ending differences over the agreement during four-day negotiations in Tehran.

The two countries have agreed to sign draft agreement and a letter of understanding by the end of October, a senior Iranian official said today.

The India-Pakistan-Iran talks in Tehran, which began on September 24, was not attended by India, which said it will not attend the tri-nation meetings unless the transit fee issue was resolved with Islamabad.

Iranian Oil Minister's special representative Hojjatollah Ghanimi-Fard, however, said "Iran welcomes India whenever it joins us in the peace pipeline project."

Ahmed Mokhtar, a senior advisor to Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and the country's Petroleum Secretary Farooq Qayyum represented Pakistan at the talks.

The two countries are now scheduled to sign the final deal by November. The two sides have prepared the final text of the agreement and Iranian and Pakistani officials will meet again in Islamabad from October 15 to 19.

Ghanimi-Fard told the official Iranian news agency that both countries have reached consensus on "all conditions of the deal, and the draft agreement is ready to be signed by the lawyers and experts of different technical, financial and commercial sectors."

"According to the negotiations, the Pakistani side is to submit the draft agreement to us next week, and we will declare our views on it in a week," he said. He noted that the last round of the discussions will be held in Pakistan in mid October.

"The two sides will explore the draft agreement not to be contrary with the MoU already signed by the leaders of the countries parties in the project," he said.