US concerned over Iran gas pipeline

The US cited Tehran's "unpredictability" as the reason for its concern at project.

Citing Tehran's "unpredictability" as the reason for its concern over the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, the United States has said it was making efforts to help New Delhi with its energy needs.

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"This is a project that's been talked about quite a bit in the region. We have made our concerns known about it. We made them aware of US legislation that might affect any investments in Iran, and made our concern about Iran as the source of energy need, given the unpredictability some times of Iranian behaviour," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher said.

Boucher said US was ready to help India with its energy needs. "We certainly think there are many ways to help India with their energy needs, and we will help with many of those areas. Not only the civil nuclear cooperation; other agreements the president has signed during his trip, including clean-coal technology, expanding efficiency of power transmission, solar, wind, all of these things."

"But I also have to point out that there's a lot of talk about this project. There are also commercial considerations that are coming into play and some doubts that are being raised about it, so I don't know if it's going to go or not," Boucher said.

So we're helping India in a great many areas to try to meet its energy needs in the future,the senior administration official maintained.