India voted against Iran under pressure from the U.S.
During the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the UN General Assembly, a group of American nuclear experts from the U.S. State Department visited India to give a report detailing Washington’s views on Iran.
India is among other countries that were influenced by the U.S. pressure and the way it views Iran’s nuclear ambitions prior the crucial meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The U.S. classified presentation was made by officials from the department lead by Robert Joseph, under-secretary for disarmament and non-proliferation.
Backed by Israel, the United States claims that Iran has breached its nuclear promises to resume uranium enrichment at its facilities, and that it seeks producing a nuclear bomb.
Although India doesn’t have a nuclear relationship with Iran, this hasn’t stopped it from getting caught in the diplomatic crossfire as one of the three countries — others being China and Russia — rejecting Iran’s referral to United Nations Security Council.
But the Indian Prime Minister found it important to undertake some damage-control in New York to clarify his country’s policy on Iran, and present some justification for India’s ’"strategic" partnership with the country.
Left’s opposition
India's Left parties launched a fierce criticism of the government for voting for the EU resolution that calls for referring Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, saying that the decision was taken under U.S. pressure.
They also said that the government has abandoned India's non-alignment doctrine.
"We told the Prime Minister that you have come under pressure of the United States. We are unhappy with the vote and think it will hamper India-Iran diplomatic and economic relations ... the vote could have been avoided and we have registered our strong protest," Revolutionary Socialist Party MP and Central Committee member Abani Roy said.
Communist Party of India general secretary A.B. Bardhan, national secretary D. Raja and Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury are the other Left leaders who participated in the meeting at the Prime Minister's official residence, together with Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and other officials.
BJP leader Yashwant Sinha issued a statement saying that the Indian government abandoned Iran to save its own controversial nuclear deal with the U.S.
"It is a pity that the Government of India decided to vote for the EU resolution against Iran at the IAEA.
“India's consistent position has been that issues in Iran's nuclear programme should be resolved through discussions and consensus and not through confrontation.
"By voting for a resolution to refer the matter to the United Nations Security Council, this avenue has been closed," he said.
India has made it clear that it would never support proliferation either by Iran or Pakistan, however it criticised the U.S. pressures against its government. India sees it was unfair for Bush’s admin to use selective leaks in the press to bring out spiteful editorials against India, apart from officials hinting that India’s nuclear deal with the U.S. will be under threat if New Delhi didn’t surrender to the American pressure.
Source: The Times of India
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 3:10 AM
3 Comments:
And India got slapped back with their 25 years broken contract for liquified gas.
Hey France
Where they slapped back france
Gas pipeline and Pak factor
by Arvind Bhandari
WITH the global oil prices rising threefold over the last two years and now touching $ 30 per barrel, India’s oil import bill has ballooned. This has caused a flutter in the dovecotes of the government, which has, therefore, intensified its search for natural gas in the countries neighbouring India. The world’s largest natural gas reserves are in Iran and central Asia.
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