TEHRAN, Feb 4: Iran will press ahead with a contentious gas pipeline to Pakistan even if India does not meet a May deadline to join the project, an Iranian deputy oil minister was quoted as saying on Saturday.

The original plan was to build a $7 billion pipeline linking Iran’s abundant gas reserves, the world’s second biggest, to India’s booming economy. But the project has met strong US objections while Iran faces action at the UN Security Council under suspicion of seeking nuclear arms. Iran denies the charge.

“We will enact the Iran-Pakistan natural gas purchase agreement and start building a pipeline without India if we do not reach an accord with the Indians by May,” Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian was quoted as saying by the Poul financial daily. —Reuters