TEHRAN -- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki stated China might replace India in the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project very soon as India has been dithering over the deal.

Iranian foreign minister claimed that Tehran was ready to start the “peace pipeline” project anytime. All the details between Pakistan and Iran in this regard had already been finalized. India still needed some time but “we can even start the project without India,” Mottaki noted.
He blamed the U.S. for trying to sabotage the gas pipeline project and said, “Growing relations between U.S. and India should not affect the relations of India with other countries of the region.”
He was confident that Pakistan would not hesitate to start the gas pipeline project despite the U.S. pressure.
“We must not allow any third country to interfere in the bilateral relations of Iran and Pakistan,” Mottaki commented.
The IPI project was conceived in 1995 and after almost 13 years India finally decided to quit the project in 2008.
The proposed pipeline is 2,775 km long and dubbed as the Peace Pipeline, connecting Iran, Pakistan and India.
The negotiations have been going on for many years involving Iran, Pakistan and India. Iran’s enormous gas reserves are ideally suited to supply massive amounts of gas to both Pakistan and India on long-term basis, thus helping ease the energy requirements of the two giant developing nations.
India was also a part of the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, but walked out of the 2,775 km pipeline project due mainly to the hefty transit fee demanded by Islamabad.
Also the United States as an outside player, fearing further economic developments of India and Pakistan, has been working round the clock by using all possible means to prevent the deal to become a reality