TEHRAN, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Iran, Pakistan and India are still negotiating the price of gas that would flow through a pipeline connecting the three countries, Iran said.
"No decision has been finalized yet and discussions are still under way," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said Sunday.
The comments came in an interview with state-run Channel One.
He said any deal will “finally be endorsed by the relevant Iranian officials and the Majlis."
The $7.4 billion, 1,700-mile IPI pipeline would run from Iran to India via Pakistan and supply some 90 million cubic meters of Iranian gas to India and 60 million cubic meters to Pakistan every day.
The future of the pipeline is uncertain, however, because of strong U.S. opposition to the deal. Washington fears international agreements with Iran will only embolden the country to acquire nuclear weapons. Funding may also be difficult because of the countries the pipeline would traverse. Washington has said it backs a pipeline that supplies Turkmen gas to South Asia.
"The Iranian side believes the gas price cannot be fixed from the outset and that new agreements should be reached on the price once in a while based on the changes in the gas price in the world market," Hosseini said.
