Foreign Correspondence

[otraque]

Oil-hungry Asia stays friendly with Iran

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=2/27/2006&Cat=2&Num=010

TOKYO (AFP) -- With the tone rising by the day between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear drive, Asia is staying cool, preserving warm ties with the Islamic republic whose oil it desperately needs.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki after difficult talks in Brussels in mid-February headed on a tour of more friendly Asia. He is due in Japan today after visits to Indonesia and Thailand.

"Our country, which maintains friendly relations with Iran, will see to it that Iran, which wields influence in the field of energy, will not be isolated in the international community," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said ahead of the trip.

Japan in 2004 inked a two billion-dollar contract to develop Azadegan in southwestern Iran, considered one of the biggest untapped oil reserves in the world.

The world's second largest economy imports nearly all of its oil needs, with 15 percent coming from Iran, and has fought bitterly with China for access to oil and gas in disputed waters and Siberia.

"As Japan is the only country that has suffered nuclear attack, it is not acceptable for it to have more nations possessing nuclear arms," said Osamu Miyata, a Middle East expert at the University of Shizuoka. But he added: "If the UN Security Council adopts economic sanctions against Iran and Japan votes for it while China votes against, Iran may move to give the development rights for the oil field to China."

"Japan is unlikely to take policies that get in the way of U.S. policy on Iran. But if the United Nations moves to sanctions, it would not benefit Japan's national interests. I believe Japan would try to convince Iran."

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is set Monday to deliver a report on the Iranian nuclear program.

China, the only Asian nation with a veto on the Security Council, over the weekend dispatched its vice foreign minister to Tehran for talks on the crisis.

China needs Iran for its breakneck economic growth, with the Islamic republic providing 13 percent of Chinese oil imports. Beijing also relates to Tehran in its sensitivity over international criticism and punitive measures.

"Beijing wants to give Tehran some face-saving period to reduce tension and avert sanctions," said Jing-dong Yuan, an expert on Asian nonproliferation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California.

India has in recent years improved relations with both Iran and the United States, whose President George W. Bush visits this week.

Despite the nuclear standoff, New Delhi is looking to secure plans with Iran to build a multibillion-dollar gas pipeline.

India voted against Iran at the IAEA, infuriating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's communist allies, who accused him of kowtowing to the United States.