BHP Billiton, the world's largest diversified resources company, has said that there are sufficient features in the pre-feasibility study of the $4.16-billion Iran-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline to ensure safety.
BHP Billiton, the Australian consultant which carried out pre-feasibility survey of the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, has said that the 2775-km long pipeline project has sufficient safeguards to prevent any disruption in the supplies.
Besides other issues, lack of pact between India and Pakistan on the price of the gas led to the delay in the project.
Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar on Tuesday denied any differences within the government on the $4.16-billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline and said New Delhi was going ahead with the project as scheduled.
Voicing "concern" over the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, the United States has said that it was sharing its feelings with the two South Asian nations in a "constructive" manner and not in a "negative way".
Khan also said Pakistan has decided to partner any other country only for peace and named the partnership with the US as the one.
'If a 'two-front war' develops, Iron Brother may only turn out to be a drag on the PLA, since Pakistan is in no position to wage a war with India,' argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India is likely to join a consortium involving Iran and Pakistan to build the much delayed $7.4-billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline
The proposed gas pipeline between Iran and India will become a reality by 2010, the Iranian envoy to New Delhi said on Tuesday.
'Tehran senses that the Modi government is inexorably gravitating toward the US-Israeli-Saudi axis, jettisoning India's traditional independent Gulf policies,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Pakistan has decided to ask the new Iranian government to completely finance a $1.8-billion bilateral gas pipeline project due to fears that US sanctions could hit funding for the venture.
The United States had warned that it could invoke sanctions against the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project in future, Sharif said without giving details.
This project is part of $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) package and is covered under the CPEC Framework Agreement.
Pakistan on Thursday said it was committed to the ambitious $7.5 billion gas pipeline project with Iran despite the venture running into rough weather over financing.
Pakistan said on Monday that its close ally Saudi Arabia has asked for ground troops, warships and fighter planes to oust the Shia rebels in war-torn Yemen as lawmakers debate whether the country should join the conflict which has sectarian and domestic implications.
In a presentation prepared for the incoming Narendra Modi-government, the ministry listed national oil companies losing focus on domestic exploration as well as legal disputes around signed contracts with private explorers among the five things that went wrong during the United Progressive Alliance regime.
If things work out, it will be a great leap forward in the Indian-Iranian economic ties in the new phase of Iran's reintegration with the world market following the lifting of sanctions, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
In the Middle East, which is already coping with the Qatar-Saudi Arabia tensions, comes another pressure point.
Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily reviewed the progress on the ambitious 1,680-km project with Turkmenistan Minister for Oil and Gas Mukhammetnur Khalylov, who is in New Delhi to attend the eighth Asia Gas Partnership Summit.
The Modi government's appalling inefficiency and lack of purpose stand exposed, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'India needs to learn in Kashmir how to spread development.' 'Pakistan needs to learn in Balochistan how to spread development.' 'China needs to learn in Xinjiang and Tibet.' 'And if they can show tangible benefits, there will be less terrorism.' 'No one wakes up in the morning saying 'I want to kill myself', right?'
Identifying terror emanating from Pakistan as the "greatest threat" to regional peace and stability, India and Afghanistan have said that setting up an effective counter-terror framework to deal with the challenge will be a major focus at the two-day Heart of Asia conference beginning Saturday.
'It will be foolhardy to overlook that this stunning shift in China's stance comes as the culmination of the severely damaged India-China relationship under the present government,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
We see none of the euphoric build-up customary to India's encounter with US presidents in recent times. This gives Modi wriggle room to work on the much-needed reset of India-US ties.
Two suspected operatives of Al Qaeda have been arrested in New Delhi and Odisha and Delhi Police on Wednesday claimed to have busted a module of the terror group's Indian sub-continent wing operating out of the country.
'The Pakistanis were lulled adequately to provide one of the fundamental prerequisites for successful execution of such an option: Surprise.' 'The other requisite: Deception in terms of selection of areas for launch/time of offensive action,' explains Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
How long can Pakistan remain neutral in the Saudi Arabia-led Yemen conflict?
''There is the perennial worry in the Indian mind regarding the US 'hyphenating' India and Pakistan. Frankly, this is a completely nonsensical hypothesis. The US has always 'hyphenated' India and Pakistan and it couldn't have been otherwise,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'There were assurances that Jaish-e-Mohammad was being reined in as was the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, but Pakistan's security forces could not risk opening too many dangerous new fronts,' notes former foreign secretary Ambassador Shyam Saran, who has just returned from a visit to Lahore.
India's low passion, very cautious, relationship with Iran of the last 36 years awaits transformation, says Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd). Prime Minister Modi's visit cannot be a negotiating event; it is a symbolic one to strengthen the politico-diplomatic relationship.
'The civil war in Islam has just got worse and the existential crisis facing it more threatening.'
Yoga, wellness, meditation, Ayurveda, software and ... toothpaste - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has successfully merged business with spirituality
A very delayed and subdued reaction, at a time when the non-aligned world had expected a big country like India to come out in support of rights and justice. It was yet another example of the mealy mouthed approach that has come to define Indian foreign policy, says Seema Mustafa.
The Saudi-Pakistan nuclear weapons cooperation is meant to sound alarm bells in Washington, reminding the Obama administration that its overtures to Iran would have serious negative consequences in terms of its ties with its closest allies in the region, says Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad. Exclusive to Rediff.com
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