Limit to the waiting game on IPI project: Iran

With reports that China was set to replace India as a partner nation in the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline doing the rounds with increasing frequency, Iran on Tuesday said that it hoped India would join the project soon. The Iranian ambassador in India, however, stressed that there should be ''some limit'' to the time being taken to arrive at a decision.

Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India region

Speaking to media representatives on the ''31st anniversary of victory of the Islamic Revolution,'' Iran's ambassador to India, Syed Mehdi Nabizadeh, also remarked that like India his country too did not subscribe to the theory that there were good and bad Taliban.

 ''We are keeping alive our negotiations on IPI. A team from the Indian oil ministry was in Tehran recently,'' Nabizadeh said when queried about the expiry of the one month timeline reportedly set in a meeting between Indian petroleum minister, Murli Deora, and Iranian deputy oil minister, Seifollah Jashnsaz, here last month.

He pointed out that discussions on the pipeline had been going on for 15 years and that negotiations with Pakistan were reaching the implementation stage.

''The doors are open to India to join. We can't wait indefinitely. There should be some limit. We hope it will be decided in the future,'' Nabizadeh said.

On Afghanistan, Nabizadeh pointed out none of the three objectives set in 2001 for foreign military intervention had been met.