Regional
US says it doesn’t support Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project going forward
The U.S. said on Tuesday it does not support a Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project from going forward and cautioned about the risk of sanctions in doing business with Tehran, Reuters reported.
The Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline, known as the Peace Pipeline, opens new tab, is a long-term project between Tehran and Islamabad, and has faced delays and funding challenges for several years. The pipeline would transport natural gas from Iran to neighboring Pakistan.
Iran and Pakistan had signed a five-year trade plan in August 2023 and set a bilateral trade target at $5 billion.
Pakistan’s Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik said this week that his country was seeking a U.S. sanctions waiver for the gas pipeline from Iran, read the report.
“We always advise everyone that doing business with Iran runs the risk of touching upon and coming in contact with our sanctions, and would advise everyone to consider that very carefully,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told reporters in a press briefing.
“We do not support this pipeline going forward,” the spokesperson added, saying that Donald Lu, the State Department’s top official for South and Central Asia, had said as much to a congressional panel last week.
A few weeks ago, Pakistan and Iran engaged, opens new tab in tit-for-tat strikes when they exchanged drone and missile strikes on militant bases on each other’s territory, Reuters reported.
Washington’s relations, opens new tab with Iran have been thorny for a long time and the U.S. has issued multiple rounds of sanctions on Iranian entities.
Officially allies in fighting extremism, Pakistan and the U.S. have had a complicated relationship, opens new tab over the years, bound by Washington’s dependence on Pakistan to supply its troops during its long war in Afghanistan but plagued by accusations Islamabad played a double game.
Some Pakistani politicians have also accused Washington of meddling in Pakistan’s domestic politics, charges that Washington denies, read the report.
Regional
Bus falls into gorge in India’s Jammu, killing at least 21
A bus carrying pilgrims fell into a deep gorge in the northern Indian federal territory of Jammu on Thursday, killing at least 21 people and injuring dozens, authorities said.
The bus, which began its journey in Kurukshetra in the northern Haryana state was headed to a Hindu temple in Jammu when it rolled into the gorge, a police spokesperson said.
A rescue operation was ongoing, said the police official, adding that 40 injured people were admitted to the government medical college in Jammu for treatment, Reuters reported.
Regional
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is reelected as president of ruling party
Pakistan’s former premier Nawaz Sharif was reelected president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N party on Tuesday. He last held the position in 2017, when he was forced out of office amid corruption allegations.
The PML-N came into power with the Feb. 8 elections that Sharif’s key rival, former premier Imran Khan, alleged were rigged, Associated Press reported.
Sharif’s younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif, now leads a coalition government and Sharif is a member of Parliament.
Nawaz Sharif was ousted from power in 2017 when the Supreme Court disqualified him from holding any public office over concealing financial assets, a charge Sharif denies. His conviction and sentences were overturned last year, allowing him to hold any public or party office.
Sharif returned to Pakistan in October from self-imposed exile in London, where he went in 2019 for medical treatment when Khan was in power.
Khan was ousted through a no-confidence vote in 2022 and is serving multiple prison terms.
Regional
Putin arrives in Uzbekistan, third foreign trip since re-election
Russian President Vladimir Putin, making his third foreign trip since his re-election in March, arrived in Uzbekistan on Sunday and met with his counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev ahead of the start of formal talks.
Russian news agencies said Mirziyoyev met Putin on arrival in Tashkent in the evening and the two leaders traveled together in a single car.
Photos and video footage posted on the Kremlin website and by Russian news agencies showed Putin visiting the New Uzbekistan park in Tashkent and laying a wreath at a monument to Uzbek independence.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by news agencies, told Russian television that Russia was open to broader cooperation on gas supplies with Uzbekistan, saying “the possibilities here are very extensive”.
Putin has already visited China and Belarus since securing re-election by a wide margin.
The Kremlin leader has traveled abroad only infrequently since the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest last March on suspicion of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. The Kremlin denies those allegations.
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