Buying Iran gas, says Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s prime minister promised Tuesday to go ahead with a plan to import natural gas from Iran even if the U.S. levies additional sanctions against the Mideast country.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s comments came two days after the U.S. special envoy to Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, cautioned Pakistan not to “overcommit” itself to the deal because it could run afoul of new sanctions against Iran being finalized by Congress.

The deal has been a constant source of tension between the two countries, with Pakistan arguing that it is vital to its ability to cope with an energy crisis and the U.S. stressing that it would undercut international pressure on Iran over its nuclear program.

Gilani said Pakistan would reconsider the deal if it violated U.N. sanctions, but the country was “not bound to follow” unilateral U.S. measures. He said media reports that quoted him as saying that Pakistan would heed Holbrooke’s warning were incorrect.

The U.N. has levied four sets of sanctions against Iran for failing to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for a nuclear weapon. The latest set of U.N. sanctions was approved earlier this month.

The U.S. has also applied a number of unilateral sanctions against Iran, and Congress is currently finalizing a new set largely aimed at the country’s petroleum industry. Both houses have passed versions of the sanctions and are working to reconcile their differences.

Democrats and Republicans alike urged the Obama administration Tuesday to endorse the legislation.

Senators on both sides of the aisle told two top Treasury and State Department officials that they should back a bill that targets exports of gasoline and other refined petroleum products to Iran and bans U.S. banks from doing business with foreign banks that provide financial services to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

“We’re at that point where we really need to do something,” said Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho. “We have got to get better at this because we’re going to have a real wreck on our hands.”

“It is important that we speak with a very strong voice,” said Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md.

Meanwhile, Pakistani troops backed by fighter jets killed 43 militants and wounded two dozen others in the Orakzai tribal region Tuesday, said Jahanzeb Khan, the deputy political administrator in the area.

Four soldiers were killed in the fighting, and 18 others were wounded, said Khan.

The military declared victory against the Taliban in Orakzai at the beginning of June, but regular clashes with the militants have continued.

Also on Tuesday, a purported Pakistani Taliban spokesman warned that the group would kill 35 Pakistani soldiers unless the government agreed to release captured militants. Security officials confirmed last week that nearly three dozen soldiers were missing, though they have not said if they were kidnapped.

“We have 35 Frontier Corps men in our custody, and we will start killing them if our arrested fellows are not released soon,” Ikramullah Mohmand told The Associated Press over the phone from an undisclosed location.

Mohmand did not mention how many militants the group wanted freed and refused to give a deadline, but said “we will not wait for long.”

He confirmed that the paramilitary soldiers were the same ones who disappeared after a militant attack on a border checkpoint in Mohmand tribal region more than a week ago. Six Frontier Corps soldiers were killed in the attack.

Attempts to reach a spokesman for the military were not immediately successful.

Information for this article was contributed by Munir Ahmed, Hussain Afzal, Matthew Lee and Anwarullah Khan of The Associated Press.