Washington: India's move to build a port in Chahabar which will give the country access to Afghanistan and Europe bypassing Pakistan, has drawn the attention of United States.
A group of legislators on Tuesday questioned whether India's development of Iran's Chabahar port for trade access risked violating international sanctions, News agency Reuters reported.
The US State Department official has assured them the administration would closely examine the project.
"We have been very clear with the Indians (about) continuing restrictions on activities with respect to Iran," Nisha Desai Biswal, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, said on Tuesday.
"We have to examine the details of the Chabahar announcement to see where it falls in that place," she testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The United States and Europe had lifted sanctions in January under a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program but some restrictions to trade remain, tied to issues such as human rights and terrorism.
India on Monday inked the Chahabar deal and pledged upto $500 million to boost trade ties with Iran and Afghanistan, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi said could "alter the course of the history of the region".
Earlier, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had visited the country in April 2001.
The key agreement signed was a contract for development of Phase I of the Chabahar port on the southern coast of Iran by an Indian joint venture.
Chabahar port, located in the Sistan-Balochistan Province on the energy-rich Persian Gulf nation's southern coast, lies outside the Persian Gulf and is easily accessed from India's western coast, bypassing Pakistan.
"The bilateral agreement to develop the Chabahar port and related infrastructure and availability of about USD 500 million from India for this purpose, is an important milestone," Modi, the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Iran in 15 years, said while addressing the media jointly with Rouhani.
"This major effort would boost economic growth in the region. We are committed to take steps for early implementation of the agreements signed today," he said.
The trilateral agreement on Transport and Transit Corridor, linked to the Chabahar port development, was signed later by India, Iran and Afghanistan in the presence of Modi, Rouhani and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
