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While the Obama administration is also urging Iran's regional neighbors to sanction Iran, that is not going over well in India, which sees Iran as a major source for its energy needs.

NPR's Corey Flintoff reports from New Delhi on the reasons that India's view of Iran is so different from that of the U.S.

COREY FLINTOFF: India and Iran have had a relationship that dates back not just for years but millennia.

Mr. RAJIV SIKFI (Foreign Policy Strategist): You have to understand that unlike the United States, which is many thousands of miles away, Iran is a neighbor. There is a certain empathy among the people. We are both old civilizations.

FLINTOFF: That's Rajiv Sikri, a retired Indian diplomatic and foreign policy strategist. He says India's longstanding economic, political and cultural ties to Iran all play into its current policy. The most immediate concern is economic. India needs energy to fuel its phenomenal growth rate of more than eight percent, and Iran currently provides about 14 percent of India's crude oil.