The US has warned Pakistan that if it goes ahead with the construction of a $7.5 billion gas pipeline with Iran, sanctions will be imposed on it. The warning came in the wake of a section of the project being inaugurated by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari along with his Iranian counterpart President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday. They inaugurated the much-delayed section of the gas pipeline saying, the West has no right to block the project.

US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington, that if this project actually goes forward, than the Iran Sanctions Act would be triggered. She said, the US is also working very closely bilaterally, to support alternative projects to provide Pakistan with the energy that it needs.