Iranian president's visit will test India

I.Citation:
Iranian president's visit will test India
By Somini Sengupta and Heather Timmons
Tuesday, April 29
http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=12432372

II. Summary:
The Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in the New Delhi, the capitol of India, on Tuesday, April 22nd. Relations between India and Iran have increased sharply over the past year. However, The US is urging India to enforce pressure against the Iranian nuclear program. India has refused to do so and has recently decided to begin a project with Iran. The project is a pipeline that would transport natural gas from Iran to India. The Bush Administration has also shown to oppose this as well. Indian companies have reason to complete the pipeline project because it will encourage good business. Also, Iran is encouraged to complete the project due to its isolation from the US and Europe.

III. Reactions:
A) This article relates to the AP World History theme, Impact of interaction among and within major societies. This is because it shows how India’s increase in relation with Iran worries the US. The US wishes to put a stop on the Iranian nuclear program through pressure enforced by India to Iran. However, with India’s new relations, this may not occur.

B) India wishes to increase closer relations with Iran for reasons such as Iran’s supply of oil. Iran is the second largest supply of oil to India. Also, the relations help to handle control in Afghanistan. Iran promotes the relations in order to gain loyalty from the Shiite Muslims of India, increasing their influence and power.

C) The point of view of the article is a female reporter, Somini Sengupta, originally born in India, however, raised in the US. The source is an outside source.

D) The point of view for this article may be somewhat skewed, in that the author was originally born in India. The article may have been written to justify India’s reasons for an increase in relations. Lines like, "In fact, for energy-hungry India, good relations with Iran are important for at least three reasons," and continue to explain India’s reasoning show some sort of bias.

E) I would have liked to hear from a US source to better understand reasoning to oppose the pipeline project. Also, the article did not include any Iranian sources. An Iranian point of view would help me to understand its reason to increase Indian relations.

F) I understand why the US opposes the Iranian nuclear program. Any source of any type of nuclear weapon should always be opposed. The need of such a potentially destructive weapon is unknown, in my opinion.