India changes tune, defends Iran
By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, Jan 27: India on Friday distanced itself from US-led calls to
isolate Iran at next week's meeting of the IAEA after controversial
remarks on the issue by Washington's envoy to Delhi enraged the nation as
seldom seen before.
The Indian foreign ministry, facing a barrage of criticism for apparent
obsequiousness towards Washington that ranged from allies in the Left
Front to former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, appeared to have
rowed back from its recent bonhomie with the United States.
"During the past two weeks, India has been undertaking active
consultations with all key members of the IAEA Board of Governors and with
Iran, in order to avoid confrontation and to promote the widest possible
consensus on handling the Iran nuclear issue," a spokesman for the Indian
foreign ministry said.
He explained that in all the consultations, India has urged "that Iran's
right to develop peaceful uses of nuclear energy for its development
consistent with its international obligations and commitments should be
respected".
The spokesman said: "Iran's willingness to work together with the IAEA to
remove any outstanding issues, about its nuclear programme should be
welcomed." In this regard, the agency should be allowed to proceed
according to its work programme and submit a detailed report, he said.
India, he said, also welcomes all initiatives, "including from Russia,
which could enable a consensus to be reached on this issue and urges
further intensive efforts in that direction".
In the bargain India appealed to "all concerned countries (to) avoid
confrontation and work in the spirit of seeking a mutually acceptable
solution".
The Indian clarification, which came in response to a question, coincided
with comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that India should
be ready to make hard choices ahead.
Earlier this week, US Ambassador David Mulford, in apparent eagerness to
clinch a civil nuclear energy deal with India before President George W.
Bush arrives here on March 1, said the move could die in the US Congress
if India did not vote against Iran at the February 2 IAEA meeting.
The Indian Express, which supports the deal, cautioned: "India and the US
are raucous democracies. Public statements from either side quickly feed
into the domestic politics of the other and complicate the negotiations
between the two governments. India and the US have made much progress in
the last few years because they have learnt one hard lesson from the
wasted decades of the past: avoid hectoring each other in public. Mulford's
remarks are an awful deviation from that sensible rule."
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government is already under considerable
pressure from the Left as well as sections of the Congress to reverse its
IAEA vote, the Express wrote. "By linking the implementation of the
nuclear pact and the Iran vote, Mulford has undercut the prospects of
India moving forward on both."
The Hindu said: "In publicly warning India, on Republic Day eve, to vote
against Iran or else, (Mulford) has outrageously crossed the line of
diplomatic propriety, inviting condemnation from political players ranging
from the Left to Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
"But he has also done India a service by letting the cat out of the bag,
if it was ever fully in. In his interview to the Press Trust of India, he
has spotlighted the pitiful terms of the bargain struck by the Manmohan
Singh government with Washington under the signboard of civilian nuclear
cooperation," The Hindu said.
"Who can, after Mr Mulford's egregious forthcomingness, doubt that the
bargain requires India to behave like a marionette - forced at every turn
of major international events to go against its own national instincts and
interests for fear of offending Washington? Today it is a fatwa on Iran,
tomorrow it will be a diktat on India's plan to separate its civil and
military nuclear facilities, which Mr. Mulford has found to fall short of
'minimum standards'."
The Asian Age, commenting on Mr Mulford's faux pas, observed: "Sometimes
when you say something often enough, you start saying it in your sleep.
This is what appears to have happened to US Ambassador to India David C.
Mulford who stunned his own, and definitely Manmohan Singh's, governments
with his recent interview to a news agency."
http://www.dawn.com/2006/01/28/top2.htm
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: India Changes Tune, Defends Iran |
28 Jan 2006 05:02:12 AM |
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A case of too much stick and not enough Carrot.
Ironic ain't it Indians invading US?
LB
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| User: "Doc" |
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| Title: Re: India Changes Tune, Defends Iran |
30 Jan 2006 02:44:13 AM |
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<leigh8bee@optusnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:1138446132.109064.48610@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
A case of too much stick and not enough Carrot.
Ironic ain't it Indians invading US?
LB
Europeans invaded "Indian" territory in the Americas. Call it karma.
Doc
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