Posted on 03/10/2005 5:29:48 AM PST by Gengis Khan
On pipeline, India gets a gentle US reminder: Iran is big worry area
US Ambassador Mulford tells Aiyar that Tehran’s N-programme causing deep concern in the Bush admn, no idea how events there are going to unfold
NEW DELHI, MARCH 9: Ahead of Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar’s visit to Islamabad for trilateral talks on the proposed Iran-India gas pipeline, Washington has officially conveyed to New Delhi that the Bush administration continues to have serious concerns on Tehran and can’t foresee how events there will shape up.
The veiled message—from US Ambassador David Mulford to Aiyar—is the first communication from the US on the $ 4.16 billion pipeline project and was personally conveyed after Aiyar got the Cabinet mandate last month to go ahead with the talks.
Sources said that Mulford left his statement open-ended without giving any suggestion on how India should react to his country’s concerns on Iran. The message is likely to be replayed when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits India on March 16. Rice will leave for Pakistan the next day.
Mulford is learnt to have told Aiyar that Washington was facing serious difficulties with Iran on its nuclear weapons programme and there was no solution in sight to end the imbroglio. Apparently, Mulford indicated that the problem was heating up and that the issue was being seriously focused on by the US Government.
Mulford is learnt to have reiterated that matters pertaining to Iran were being given considerable importance by the US since it would provide inputs to the sanctions legislation on Libya and Iran.
Though Mulford said he did appreciate New Delhi’s interest and approach in regard to the pipeline projects, he felt it was his duty to highlight US concerns on Iran.
Before India, the US had made it known to Islamabad, through its Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, that it did not favour the project. There’s likely to be pressure to go slow on the pipeline. It was in this context that Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran in Islamabad last December that there were ‘‘many ways to skin a cat’’.
Aiyar, meanwhile, is trying to negotiate the diplomatic pitfalls carefully. While citing India’s need for energy security, he said that discussions with Iran were still in the initial stages.
He also indicated that he was keen to take up Mulford’s suggestion to bring the heads of energy firms in India and the US together. He said he would write to Energy Secretary Samuel W Bodman in this context.
Sources said that Aiyar was hoping to convince Bodman that for now India had no choice but to seek gas from Iran. Apart from Iran, New Delhi was also exploring gas from Myanmar and Turkmenistan.
Nudge nudge, hint hint, wink wink...
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