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India keeps options open
The Left renewed its demand for New Delhi to abstain from voting at IAEA.
The Indian government on Tuesday said it was keeping its options open on referring Iran's nuclear programme to the UN Security Council even as its Leftist allies renewed their demand for New Delhi to abstain from a vote at a crucial meeting on Thursday.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured his Leftist allies that the government would study the resolution, which is to be tabled at the meeting the 35-member International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors, before taking a position on the vote.
"The Prime Minister told us that the government would study the resolution carefully and formulate the stand on the Iranian nuclear issue. He said the government will take a stand keeping the national interests in mind," Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat told reporters.
Karat, along with his ally Communist Party of India leader D Raja, met Manmohan Singh at the latter's residence in New Delhi and conveyed again their concerns over India's vote on the Iranian issue at the IAEA's Thursday meeting in Vienna.
The Left parties, who support the Congress-led government from outside, have warned the government not to toe the American line and vote against Iran at the IAEA meet.
They had advised the government to abstain in case of a vote on reporting Tehran to the Security Council.
At a meeting in London that lasted well into the small hours of Tuesday, envoys of the P-5 countries -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the US -- decided to call on the IAEA to report Iran to the UN Security Council for its alleged violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
They, however, decided against taking any action against Tehran until March in a compromise with Russia and China who favoured giving more time to Iran.
Indicating that all options were open to the government, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee earlier said that the government was "reviewing" the situation and would "come out with our stand at appropriate time".
Responding to questions at a media interaction at 4th Defexpo in New Delhi, he said there were still 48 hours for the IAEA to take up the issue.
"We are keeping a close watch in the situation. It all depends on the way the draft resolution is phrased," an official source said.
Even though the government is extremely cautious and is trying to adopt a cautious approach over this volatile issue, nothing has changed on the ground for India to change its September 24 vote against Iran, diplomatic sources pointed out.
If anything, Iran has made matters worse by dramatically removing seals on its uranium enrichment facilities, they said, indicating that if it came to a vote, New Delhi would again vote against Tehran.
India, which backs "widest possible consensus" on the Iranian issue, has been under relentless pressure not only from its Leftist allies but also from the US, which has indicated that India's vote on Iran could have a direct bearing on the civil nuclear energy deal.
US Ambassador David Mulford, in a controversial interview last week, said that the civil nuclear deal could "die" in the US Congress if India did not vote against Iran at the IAEA.
In a damage control exercise ahead of US President George Bush's visit to India in March, State Department Acting Spokesman Adam Ereli said in Washington on Monday: "India will decide as a sovereign country and will take its own decision on how it votes on the issue at the IAEA meeting."
The Left parties, however, have demanded that the government should seek Mulford's recall for "interfering" the country's affairs.
Iran, an important country in partnership with which India has entered into crucial energy projects, including the multi-billion dollar tri-nation pipeline, too, has indicated that bilateral relations would depend on the way India votes at the IAEA.
Iran upped the ante on Tuesday with chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani warning in Tehran that the referral of the Iranian nuclear case to the Security Council by the EU and US would mean the end of diplomacy on the issue.
