Iranian ambassador to New Delhi invited India to rejoin the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project, but emphasized that the offer is not open for "unlimited period" and there may be no room for India to change its decision after commencement of the project.
Seyed Mehdi Nabizadeh told a press conference on Tuesday, China is also interested in the proposed IPI pipeline. However, he remained reticent on whether talks with China on the pipeline are going on.
India has not officially pulled out from pipeline talks after rounds of discussions but has quitted talks following tensions with Pakistan. Indian officials have cited "security" and "non viability" of the proposed pipeline as the main reason for parting from the project.
The proposed IPI gas pipeline was to run 2,775 km when linked with the three countries.
The main sticking point in this trilateral project was also the hefty transit fee asked by Pakistan.
Iranian envoy further said that the project is still open for India but indicated that New Delhi has to make decision in the near future. When asked by the reporters that whether Iran is setting any timeframe for India to rejoin the project, he said that the work on the project progressing rapidly and one should understand the urgency to join the pipeline.
Iran and Pakistan have signed agreement on the project and are going ahead with the project. The Iranian envoy said: "Very serious discussion on the trilateral project have taken place but we have waited long for India and expected that India and Pakistan would resolve the bottlenecks, but that hasn't happened and we went ahead to sign the agreement with Pakistan."
The project, also termed as the "Peace Pipeline" by officials from both countries, has been signed by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and his Iranian counterpart President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of the tripartite summit on Afghanistan security in Tehran in May this year.
Appreciating India's security concerns over the pipeline, Nabizedeh repeatedly told reporters that India could still join the project.
Iranian envoy also emphasized that India and Iran could extend cooperation in Afghanistan and hailed India-Iran teamwork in building Zeranj Delaram road in Afghanistan. He also asked India to follow an independent foreign policy.
The IPI project was conceived in 1995 and after almost 13 years India finally decided to quit the project in 2008.