New Delhi, Sept. 28: Iran is disappointed with the Indian vote in Vienna, but not enough to shelve the gas pipeline deal.

This was the message from Tehran today after India sided with the US at Friday’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting on the Iranian nuclear controversy.

Ali Larijani, Supreme National Security Council secretary and Iran’s chief negotiator on the nuclear dispute, suggested that though Tehran is disappointed with Delhi’s vote, it will not judge “an old friend” by a single incident.

The managing director of Iran’s state-owned National Petrochemical Company, Reza Nematzadeh, was more businesslike.

“We have not had any problem with any country regarding our deals on petrochemicals, and the same applies to India,” he said. “Our petrochemical agreements with India will definitely be implemented in due time.”

Delhi’s decision to vote for the US-initiated western countries’ resolution, which spoke of referring Iran’s nuclear issue to the UN Security Council, marks a major foreign policy shift. Delhi, however, is harping on the fact that the resolution doesn’t set a specific timetable.

This, it argues, allows more scope for negotiations and offers the chance of a settlement at the IAEA itself. Delhi has even claimed that the decision was taken to safeguard Iran’s “legitimate” interests.

Neither Iran nor India in general bought the argument. Smarting under the blow, Tehran had announced it would review its deals with all the countries that had voted against it in Vienna.

The hint was clear: Iran would put on hold its recent deal with India on supply of liquefied natural gas though a pipeline.

Today, India’s ambassador to Iran met senior officials in the Iranian foreign ministry. K.C. Singh made it clear that India values its ties with Iran and supported the resolution only to avoid a confrontation and stop it from reaching the Security Council.

The focus is now shifting towards the next IAEA meeting in November, when the agency’s board of governors ? of which India is a member ? meet in Vienna to assess whether Iran has complied with the recommendations. If the opinion goes against Tehran, the matter may be referred to the Security Council within a specific timeframe.

The key question is: will India again vote with the West or will it do a course correction and maintain its neutrality by abstaining?

Many reasons are being attributed to the Indian policy shift. Sources said that till foreign minister Natwar Singh’s visit to Iran early this month, Delhi was confident it would be able to de-link the nuclear deal signed with the US from Indo-Iranian relations.

But the foreign minister’s visit brought the focus back on the ties and led the US and the European countries to insist that India take an unambiguous stand on Iran.

A cornered Delhi negotiated and watered the resolution down before voting for it.