Syria and Iran are discussing the establishment of an Iranian strategic oil pipeline across Iraq, an official Syrian newspaper reported on Tuesday.
A Syrian-Iranian Joint Committee discussed ways to improve work on building a strategic oil pipeline in cooperation with the Iraqi government, Al-Thawra newspaper said, adding that three countries will benefit from the project.
According to the report, the pipeline will run across Iraq, Syria to the Mediterranean Sea.
The deal is part of a Memo of Understanding signed between Syria and Iran on the improvement of oil, gas and petrochemicals projects in an attempt to continue and improve cooperation in this field.
The joint committee also discussed the possibility of building a strategic gas line across Iraq and Syria to link it to the Arab Gas Line which is under construction to transport the Egyptian gas through Syria and Jordan.
Syria and Iran boosted their trade ties recently. Both countries signed preferential trade agreements and several accords on finance, industry, power, textile, oil, environment, and culture during last month‘s visit by Tehran’s First Vice-President Parviz Davoudi to Damascus.
Iran demands nuclear compensation
In a separate development, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demanded the International Atomic Energy Agency to compensate his country for its past suspension of nuclear activities, BBC reported.
"The IAEA now has to compensate Iran for causing damage to the development of its science, technology and economy" due to the suspension of nuclear research, state television quoted the Iranian President as saying.
Ahmadinejad’s comments came shortly before the IAEA began a second day of talks in Vienna that could pave the way for UN Security Council sanctions against Iran.
Under heavy pressure from the West, Iran voluntarily suspended the process of uranium enrichment and all related activities in 2003 and began diplomatic talks with the European Union to reach an agreement over its nuclear program. But the talks collapsed last year when Iran refused to abandon its nuclear program, and resumed in stages elements of its enrichment program, a move that led to the IAEA’s decision last month to refer Tehran’s nuclear case to the UN Security Council.
The United States and the European Union accuse Iran of secretly developing an atomic weapons program. But Tehran denies their allegations, insisting that it has a right to work on a peaceful nuclear program as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
On Sunday, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, warned that Tehran would resume full-scale uranium enrichment if the UN Security Council was involved. And a senior military commander warned on Monday that the Iranian military would turn the country into a killing field for any enemy aggressor.
Correspondents say that UN sanctions might never come. Russian and China, permanent members of the UN Security Council, have so far opposed imposing sanctions on Iran.
Compromise
On Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said that the Islamic Republic was ready to compromise but only if it was permitted to resume its small-scale nuclear enrichment program.
Asefi also said that Tehran is willing to suspend full-scale nuclear enrichment for a period as a confidence-building measure.
But the U.S. and the EU say only a full suspension of Iran's nuclear activities would be acceptable in order to avoid UN Security Council action.
Last minute negotiations between Iran and the EU, and the latest round of talks between Moscow and Tehran, on a Russian proposal to enrich uranium for Iran, ended without agreement.
However, IAEA chief Mohammad El-Baradei said he was hopeful that a deal could be reached soon to end Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West.