By IANS,
New Delhi: A day after talks with Indian leaders, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki Tuesday said the “door was open” for India to join the tri-nation gas pipeline, but indicated his wariness with the Indian response, saying the project could change in the future.
Iran has in place a bilateral arrangement with Pakistan on the gas pipeline and both countries have begun work on the project, Mottaki said here.
“We have a bilateral arrangement with Pakistan and the door is open for our Indian friends. That (IPI) will be a reality…but I am not sure about the future,” he said here in an interaction at the Indian Council of World Affairs, a think tank.
Mottaki said that more than 100 km of the pipeline has already been laid on the Iranian side and the Pakistani side has also “started action” on its side of the border.
The $7.5 billion tri-nation pipeline that seeks to bring Iranian gas to the Indian border through Pakistan figured in the discussions Mottaki had with his Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna here.
India reiterated its commitment to take the pipeline forward, but insisted on resolving the pricing of Iranian gas and the security of the pipeline, which is expected to pass through violence-prone areas of Pakistan. A joint working group will meet in New Delhi to resolve these issues.
Alluding to the “failure” of former president George W. Bush’s administration to bring peace to Afghanistan, Mottaki also pushed for a regional solution to the situation in Afghanistan and called for “new policies and new ideas”.
His remarks come even as US President Barack Obama readied to send more US troops to bolster security in the country.
“In responding to the current Obama and US administration messages asking Iran’s help in dealing with the problem in Afghanistan, we have defined the new approach… we are hopeful of taking some steps in this regard,” he said.
The situation in Afghanistan dominated the discussions between India and Iran Monday with both sides committing to expand their cooperation in rebuffing the Taliban and its extremist allies.
Mottaki flew to Tehran after wrapping up his two-day visit to India that marked the first high-level engagement between India and Iran since the re-election of the Manmohan Singh government and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this year.