The Financial Express
Mumbai blasts derail Iran pipeline talks PIYUSH PANDEY Posted online: Sunday, July 16, 2006 at 0006 hours IST
MUMBAI, JULY 15: The July 11 blasts in Mumbai have taken a toll on the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline project. With strained relations with Pakistan over the blasts issue, the next secretary-level trilateral meeting to be held in Delhi on Friday, July 21 to discuss pricing and other project issues has been postponed. The government, however, is yet to make an announcement on this.
Sources in the petroleum ministry told FE, "The meeting will be held at an appropriate time. Nothing has been decided yet." Petroleum minister Murli Deora could not be reached for comment.
The cancellation followed some very tough talk from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his Mumbai visit on July 14. Singh said that it was impossible for terrorists to execute Tuesday's train blasts without the support, instigation and inspiration from across the border. Singh said Pakistan had assured India in 2004 that terrorists would not be allowed to operate from its soil. "That assurance has to be fulfilled," he said.
The trilateral secretary-level meeting for the IPI pipeline project was to have discussed structure of the project pricing of gas, security of supplies and other issues, petroleum secretary M S Srinivasan had told FE earlier.
In a separate development, Iran's oil minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh has said Iran will not sell its gas to India and Pakistan at the price proposed by these countries. According to Hamaneh, the price offered by India and Pakistan is based on their domestic prices. Iran had quoted a price of $7 per mmbtu of gas, while the domestic price of gas in India and Pakistan is hovering around $4.