US Trying to Block Indo-Iran Gas Pipeline Project

TEHRAN (FNA) The United States has been “trying to block” the Indo-Iran gas pipeline via Pakistan, as it did not want Iran to expand its contacts in the region, New Delhi’s former Foreign Secretary Salman Haider said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Conference on the ‘India/China/US Triangle’ in Kochi, Haider said, “(The) US was trying to ‘block’ the project as it does not want Iran to expand its contacts in the Asian region and this deprives us of a very important opportunity for improving our relation with Pakistan.”

India was interested in obtaining gas supplies from Iran to fuel its growing economy and the pipeline project would augur well for its future, the Times of India quoted him as saying.

Speaking at a session on ‘Sino-US relations and India’, Haidar said if India and China, the two fast growing economies, work together, it would be difficult for any country to budge them.