In a late night clarification, the US Ambassador to India David C Mulford said his remarks during an interview to PTI on the effect of the possibility of India not voting against Iran nuclear's programme at next month's IAEA meeting "have been taken out of context".
Asked if he is going to have talks with Indian government before the IAEA meeting, Mulford said "I don't think so, well, I mean obviously we will, we have made it known to them. I would say two points. One is that we would very much like their support because India has arrived on the world stage and is a very, very important player in the world and if it opposes Iran having a nuclear weapon we think they should record this in the vote.
"The second point is, and this is an observation that we have passed on -- you know an observation is a neutral statement -- and that is that if they decide that they don't want to vote for this, our view is that the effect on members of Congress with regard to this civil nuclear initiative will be devastating".
"Devastating. I mean I think the Congress will simply stop considering the matter. I think the initiative will die in the Congress. Not because the Administration would want it to, but the Congress will, you already saw in September the reaction that came from members of Congress when they thought India might not vote", Mulford was quoted as saying as per the text of his comments released by the US embassy.
{{/usCountry}}"Devastating. I mean I think the Congress will simply stop considering the matter. I think the initiative will die in the Congress. Not because the Administration would want it to, but the Congress will, you already saw in September the reaction that came from members of Congress when they thought India might not vote", Mulford was quoted as saying as per the text of his comments released by the US embassy.
{{/usCountry}}