Undeterred by the pressure of the US to reduce its dependence on Iranian oil, India today said it will continue to be driven by its own domestic interests in the matter.
Reacting to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comments that the US is having "very intense and very blunt" conversations with India and others on reducing their dependence on Iranian oil, government sources here said New Delhi will not be under pressure by any country.
The sources also drew the attention to the comments by Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy that "we respect UN sanctions but will not honour any other sanction. We have cordial relations with Iran and we continue to import oil from them."
Asserting that India is not facing any external pressure on buying crude oil from Iran, Reddy has said it will abide by UN sanctions only, not those imposed by any bloc of nations.
Clinton, testifying before a Congressional committee yesterday, said the US is asking these countries to take specific measures that would reduce their dependence on Iranian oil. But, without naming any one, she did acknowledge that this would be a bit tough for some countries.
"With respect to China and Turkey and India, we've had very intense and very blunt conversations with each of those countries. I think that there are a number of steps that we are pointing out to them that we believe they can and should take."
US has imposed sanctions that deny access to the US financial system to any foreign bank that conducts business with the central bank of Iran.
At present, India's domestic energy supplies are limited and the import dependence is as high as 80% for crude oil and 25% in case of natural gas. Out of which, India imports 12% crude oil from Iran.
