Iran retracts relating nuke issue to Gas project

NEW DELHI—Tehran has removed the political hurdle it created by taking out nuclear politics from the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project. At the October 24 meeting of the Special Joint Working Group, Tehran had asked New Delhi to ‘’compensate the past default by supporting Iran in the next meeting of the IAEA board of governors in November.’’
However, when India did not reflect Iran’s position in the proceedings, Tehran made it clear that this was linked to the ongoing energy dialogue. It added in the proceedings that both nations had agreed to take ‘’all measures’’ to hold the tripartite meeting by December-end.
That n-politics threat is now off with both sides signing and approving the minutes without any reference to the September 24 vote when India backed an IAEA resolution calling on the agency to consider reporting Iran to the UN Security Council if it did not meet its nuclear obligations. India had requested that the reference be deleted as the demand, political in nature, was outside the ambit of the Special JWG which was set up for building the pipeline. It conveyed that the commercial project should not be burdened by political developments.
India on Thursday conveyed the United States, through a statement in the Rajya Sabha, not to meddle into the proposed gas pipeline project for India to get gas from Pakistan. “Government would take decision on the gas pipeline based on India’s national interest,” Minister of State for External Affairs Rao Inderjit Singh affirmed in the Rajya Sabha while dispelling fears of the project coming under clouds because of the American objection.
He referred in this regard Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remarks that so far as the Indo-Iran gas pipeline is concerned, “that is a decision between us and Iran and I don’t think outside parties have any role in that matter.
“The minister said the pipeline issue did not figure in Dr Manmohan Singh’s discussions with the US President, though his Secretary of State Dr Condoleeza Rice had expressed the US Government’s concerns while addressing a press conference on March 16 during her visit to India. In that press conference, she had said: “I think our views concerning Iran are well-known by this time and we have communicated to the Indian Government our concerns about the gas pipeline cooperation between Iran and India.—Agencies