The Hindu
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 26, 2005
India's shameful vote against Iran
http://www.hindu.com/2005/09/26/stories/2005092606071000.htm
The decision to vote adversarially against Iran at Saturday's crucial meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency is evidence of the Manmohan Singh Government's shameful willingness to abandon the independence of Indian foreign policy for the sake of strengthening its "strategic partnership" with the United States. Made in stealth without any broad-based discussion within the Government or with allies and national political parties, the top-level political decision (which was reported in The Hindu of September 17) conflicts with proclaimed Indian policy . . . This Bush-led resolution is unjust as well as provocative — if the idea is to find a solution through intelligent negotiation. Iran and the IAEA have resolved most of the issues in dispute; in fact, the IAEA Director General reported to the Board as recently as September 2 that "good progress has been made in Iran's correction of the breaches and in the Agency's ability to confirm certain aspects of Iran's current declarations." The only major outstanding question is the extent of the Iranian centrifuge research programme. At the very least, the resolution steps up the pressure on Iran in infringement of its sovereign rights. It is possible that it is designed to short-circuit the prospect of a negotiated solution, and to push the world towards another major confrontation. Anticipating public criticism of its volte face, the Manmohan Singh Government claims it voted the way it did because the "door for dialogue" was being kept open. It also insists that the decision to abandon its earlier insistence on consensus and break ranks with Russia, China, the non-aligned bloc, and even Pakistan has nothing to do with the July 18 U.S.-India civilian nuclear agreement. These arguments are disingenuous. The craven vote of September 24 underlines the fact that Indian foreign policy suffers from insecurity, a poor understanding of the realities of the international situation, a lack of confidence in the nation's strategic weight, and an absence of belief in, or commitment to, genuine independence and non-alignment. The downward trajectory initiated by the National Democratic Alliance Government in dealings with the United States, signalled by support, of all things, to `Star Wars,' has hit a new low. It seems that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's negative remarks on the Iran-India pipeline in July were not happenstance but the opening lines of a script rewritten in Washington.
In the run-up to the crucial vote, New Delhi was told in no uncertain terms that the fate of the civilian nuclear agreement would hinge on changing its line on Teheran. When Congressional hearings on the agreement began in Washington earlier this month, the Bush administration joined individual Congressmen in orchestrating exaggerated concern about India's relationship with Iran. Until then, New Delhi had been correctly insisting that the IAEA was the proper forum to resolve lingering questions about Iran's civilian nuclear programme and that
equal weight needed to be given to Iranian obligations (not to produce nuclear weapons) and rights (to the full nuclear fuel cycle) under the NPT. The IAEA Director General's latest report did observe that Iran's full cooperation was overdue and indispensable but also confirmed that nine issues out of ten had been resolved. As a three-part analysis published last week in this newspaper showed, such a situation can hardly be considered "non-compliance" of a magnitude threatening international peace and security. . . . >>>>
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 26, 2005
India's shameful vote against Iran
http://www.hindu.com/2005/09/26/stories/2005092606071000.htm
The decision to vote adversarially against Iran at Saturday's crucial meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency is evidence of the Manmohan Singh Government's shameful willingness to abandon the independence of Indian foreign policy for the sake of strengthening its "strategic partnership" with the United States. Made in stealth without any broad-based discussion within the Government or with allies and national political parties, the top-level political decision (which was reported in The Hindu of September 17) conflicts with proclaimed Indian policy . . . This Bush-led resolution is unjust as well as provocative — if the idea is to find a solution through intelligent negotiation. Iran and the IAEA have resolved most of the issues in dispute; in fact, the IAEA Director General reported to the Board as recently as September 2 that "good progress has been made in Iran's correction of the breaches and in the Agency's ability to confirm certain aspects of Iran's current declarations." The only major outstanding question is the extent of the Iranian centrifuge research programme. At the very least, the resolution steps up the pressure on Iran in infringement of its sovereign rights. It is possible that it is designed to short-circuit the prospect of a negotiated solution, and to push the world towards another major confrontation. Anticipating public criticism of its volte face, the Manmohan Singh Government claims it voted the way it did because the "door for dialogue" was being kept open. It also insists that the decision to abandon its earlier insistence on consensus and break ranks with Russia, China, the non-aligned bloc, and even Pakistan has nothing to do with the July 18 U.S.-India civilian nuclear agreement. These arguments are disingenuous. The craven vote of September 24 underlines the fact that Indian foreign policy suffers from insecurity, a poor understanding of the realities of the international situation, a lack of confidence in the nation's strategic weight, and an absence of belief in, or commitment to, genuine independence and non-alignment. The downward trajectory initiated by the National Democratic Alliance Government in dealings with the United States, signalled by support, of all things, to `Star Wars,' has hit a new low. It seems that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's negative remarks on the Iran-India pipeline in July were not happenstance but the opening lines of a script rewritten in Washington.
In the run-up to the crucial vote, New Delhi was told in no uncertain terms that the fate of the civilian nuclear agreement would hinge on changing its line on Teheran. When Congressional hearings on the agreement began in Washington earlier this month, the Bush administration joined individual Congressmen in orchestrating exaggerated concern about India's relationship with Iran. Until then, New Delhi had been correctly insisting that the IAEA was the proper forum to resolve lingering questions about Iran's civilian nuclear programme and that
equal weight needed to be given to Iranian obligations (not to produce nuclear weapons) and rights (to the full nuclear fuel cycle) under the NPT. The IAEA Director General's latest report did observe that Iran's full cooperation was overdue and indispensable but also confirmed that nine issues out of ten had been resolved. As a three-part analysis published last week in this newspaper showed, such a situation can hardly be considered "non-compliance" of a magnitude threatening international peace and security. . . . >>>>
