Washington has reportedly expressed ‘serious concerns’ over India’s plan to buy natural gas from Iran.

A senior State Department official told a Senate hearing in Washington, that India and China’s energy deals with Iran “raised concerns under US law and policy”.

The Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, E. Anthony Wayne, also objected to the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, and said that such negotiations had the possibility of undermining US energy policies.

“A troubling aspect of the recent surge in overseas energy deals by China and India is their willingness to invest in countries that are pursuing policies that are harmful to global stability. Both Chinese and Indian firms have been involved in oil and gas sector deals in Iran that raise concerns under US law and policy,” the Dawn quoted Wayne as saying to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Wayne said that despite US objections earlier also, “Indian and Pakistani officials were engaged in detailed discussions on the technical, financial and legal aspects of building the four billion dollars pipeline that would bring Iranian natural gas to Pakistan and India”.

He further said that oil deals with Iran and Sudan “could undermine efforts to encourage policy changes that will reduce global instability and energy security for all”.

The utterances have not gone down well with many.

Subir Raha, the chief of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has slammed Washington for its statements, and said that the US would be “stupid” to attack Iran and risk imposing record oil prices on the global economy.

“You launch one more attack and you can’t even guess where the speculation will go. With the stalemate in Afghanistan, stalemate in Iraq and elsewhere, you already have a price of 55 dollars a barrel. I see no reason why India’s priorities should be subservient to US priorities. The US is chasing oil and gas as badly as China or India or anybody else,” the paper quoted Raha as saying.