India, Iran to discuss gas pipeline

NEW DELHI—Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon is expected to visit Tehran over the week end to discuss thorny issues including IPI gas pipeline project.
The Indian daily Asian Age describing his visit as Indo-Iran ties repairing exerciseâ€, said Menon would spend almost a week in Iran, meeting its leaders and officials. His meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also not ruled out.
New Delhi has not attended trilateral crucial meetings on IPI gas pipeline project including an important one in Tehran a few weeks ago on the plea that India wanted to settle transit fee issue first with Islamabad. The Media reports in Washington and Iran had attributed this change of policy to US pressure.
Menon’s visit to Tehran is taking place after the December 3 release of US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report which said with moderate confidence that Iran’s nuclear weapons programme had not resumed.
The daily quoting sources said that New Delhi would attach importance to the political side of his visit as his dialogue in Iran are expected to cover outstanding bilateral issues such as the Iran-Pakistan-India transnational gas pipeline and the LNG (liquefied natural gas) deal.
Meanwhile, the Left parties in India have accused the government on its foreign policy shift due to pressure from Washington.
While strongly criticisng the Indo-US nuclear cooperation deal which has put India under pressure, the Left Parties have said New Delhi’’s shift in foreign policy already visible in Indo-Iranian ties.—Agencies