FARAH, Afghanistan - Some Afghan officials are fearful about their ability to protect the future Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India natural-gas pipeline, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)'s Turkmen service reported September 13, quoting Dadullah Qani, a deputy in the Farah Province legislature.
"External forces are ... sabotaging the construction of TAPI," he said, without identifying those forces.
Meanwhile, Afghan Finance Minister Eklil Ahmad Hakimi expressed hope for eventual security in south-western Afghanistan, which the pipeline is supposed to traverse.
"If local residents and elders in the south-west provinces guarantee the security of the pipeline and take the situation in hand, then, without a doubt, this project ... will be accomplished," he predicted. Construction of the long-discussed four-country pipeline began in Turkmenistan last December.
