Pakistan has been looking to revive a project to build a gas pipeline from Iran, which has been delayed for decades due to the risk of sanctions from the US. Last month, Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu said in a congressional hearing that the Biden administration will uphold all sanctions related to Iran when he was asked about the Pakistan-Iran pipeline.
Pakistan and Iran need to boost bilateral trade to about $10 billion in the next three to four years.
This week, Iran and Pakistan agreed to ban terror groups operating on each other’s soil, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said in a separate statement. Raisi, the first Iranian president to visit Islamabad in eight years, concluded his visit on Wednesday.
His visit was an “attempt to reaffirm ties and reestablish a warm relationship,” said Madiha Afzal, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution.
“We advise anyone considering business deals with Iran to be aware of the potential risk of sanctions,” US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel
told reporters in Washington Tuesday. “Ultimately, the Government of Pakistan can speak to their own foreign policy pursuits.”
