Iraqi and Syrian officials in a meeting in Damascus announced their preparedness to cooperate with Iran in building a joint pipeline which transfers Iran's gas supplies to Syria and other Arab states.
Syrian Minister of Petroleum Sufian Allao and visiting Iraqi Minister of Oil Abdul Kareem Liaibi discussed Feb 13 ways of further bolstering bilateral cooperation in oil, gas and mineral resources.
They also discussed a possible reoperation of a Syrian-Iraqi oil pipeline once it is rehabilitated and closer cooperation between both countries' ministries of oil.
Following the talks, the Syrian Minister of Petroleum told reporters that they had considered tripartite cooperation involving Syria, Iraq and Iran for setting up a gas pipeline that can carry the Iranian gas to Syria in the future and then link it to the Arab gas pipeline.
He added that oil officials from both sides would meet together in Baghdad soon to ponder over the reoperation of the oil gas pipeline.
For his part, the Iraqi minister of oil said the gas pipeline would be subject to a swift maintenance program with a view to exporting Iraqi oil via Syria, Fars News Agency reported.
Iran has the world's second-largest reserves of natural gas (15% of the world's total).
Iran possesses roughly 10 percent of the world's total proven petroleum reserves as well.
