Pakistan will not supply Americans airbases to launch attack on its neighbour, Iran, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said after the third trilateral summit of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.

Also, Pakistan's president vowed to continue with a proposed pipeline project with Iran despite American warnings of sanctions, saying Islamabad's relations with Tehran would not "be undermined by international pressure of any kind."

His assurances of support came during a meeting of the leaders of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan in Islamabad. The talks are seen as Pakistan’s way of sending a message of defiance to the US.

Relations between Pakistan and the US are at an all-time low, after a November US air strike on a Pakistani border post killed 24 troops who were mistaken for Taliban militants. It took the Pentagon a month to reluctantly admit their part of the blame for the deadly mistake and offer apologies.

The Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project is meant to export a daily amount of 21.5 million cubic meters (8.7 billion cubic meters per year) of the Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.

The maximum daily gas transfer capacity of the 56-inch pipeline, which runs over 900 km on Iran's soil from Asalouyeh in Bushehr Province to the city of Iranshahr in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, is said to stand at 110 million cubic meters.

 

Sources: AP, The Nation, Press TV, Russia Today