Eyebrows have been raised about Iran's clandestine nuclear cooperation with Pakistan, at a time when it vociferously advocates that nuclear sanctions should not be ended against countries like India, which have not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. On the economic side, there are complaints about Iran being an unreliable partner. Unlike Qatar, which has scrupulously adhered to the terms of a long-term contract for supplying LNG, Iran unilaterally repudiated a $22 billion agreement it signed with India in August 2006, for supplying five million tons of LNG annually, demanding that higher prices should be paid.
There is also the case of Iran not abiding by earlier commitments to buy iron ore from Kudremukh in Karnataka. Thus, commercial deals with Iran have to be carefully negotiated to ensure that it does not wriggle out of its commitments.
Despite these misgivings, India-Iran ties have immense strategic importance. Both countries have a common interest in opposing Taliban-style Wahhabi extremism in Afghanistan. For years, the two countries, together with Russia, backed the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. They have extended extensive economic assistance to the Karzai government. Iran extended support, including promises of rescue help, to the America-led ouster of the Taliban and thereafter at the Bonn Conference, which led to the installation of Hamid Karzai as Afghanistan's president.
http://newageislam.com/india-iran--let-us-not-communalise-the-relationship/current-affairs/d/280
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9:49 PM
Moderate Islamist here
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