May 19, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 13, 1429

WASHINGTON, May 18: The US government continues to oppose the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline while US experts argue that the project is infeasible in the foreseeable future.

“We have longstanding points on doing business with Iran. Our stance is that we are concerned about the project,” said a US State Department official when asked to explain Washington’s position on the pipeline.

Christian Faire, a South Asia expert working for the Rand Corporation, believed that “financial, political, legal and security” circumstances did not allow the pipeline to be built in the near future.

The State Department official said the US was not only concerned about the project but also had conveyed its concerns to the Indian and Pakistan governments.

“We have made the point that countries should not be conducting business as usual with Iran right now,” he said.

A US law, made soon after the Islamic revolution in Iran, forbids any major international investment in an Iranian project.

The State Department official said that Washington still had “a lot of stuff with Iran” and Iran’s refusal to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and accept UN restrictions on its nuclear programme further complicated the situation.

“We are giving the same message to the Indians and Pakistanis,” he said.

Ms Faire argued that none of the three countries involved in the project had the resources to fund the pipeline. Serious security problems, particularly in Balochistan, also discouraged international investors, she said.

“Virtually no public or private consortiums would want to build it because there is now also the issue of Iran’s nuclear quest,” she added.

Ms Faire, however, acknowledged that India wanted the deal now because it wanted to lock in the prices before they went out of control.

She believed that while the US had no direct interest in the pipeline, “it is the symbolism of it all that rankles the US”. She said the US administration and Congress “expect India to be sensitive to US concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions”.Other experts, also quoted on the US National Public Radio, predicted that eventually Iran itself might stall the pipeline project.

Robert Johnston of the Eurasia Group said the deal between Iran and India might not happen for at least a decade or two given the rising domestic demand in Iran. He said Iran would also have to take a strategic decision on how it wanted to expand its gas production and which projects brought in most money.

“Ultimately Iran will find better projects for its gas. Two other options which are most attractive are either developing pipelines to Western Europe via Turkey or developing the LNG (liquefied natural gas) market in Asia,” Mr Johnston said.

Mike Green of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies urged the US to use “quiet diplomacy” to stall the pipeline project. “If we are going to be too loud about it, we would risk giving the opponent of close US-India ties a nice weapon to beat up the (Indian) government.”