Back Iran & deal's dead, US Congressman warns India

NEW DELHI: The government’s fears that its support for the NAM resolution backing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions could complicate negotiations with the US on the nuclear deal, appeared to be coming true on Thursday. The highest ranking Democrat on the US’ House International Relations Committee, Tom Lantos, has warned that support for Iran could jeopardise the agreement.

Agency reports from Washington quoting the Democratic Rep said that the deal was on track to be voted on by the US Congress next month, but approval would be at risk if leaders in New Delhi did not ”act responsibly”.

The views of Mr Lantos are significant as the House International Relations Committee plays a key role in shaping America’s foreign policy. After a period in which critics of the deal had the momentum, Lantos said he and the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives International Relations Committee, Henry Hyde, concluded work on a bipartisan bill approving the deal that also has the Bush administration’s backing.

Mr Lantos had ruffled a few feathers in the ruling establishment here when he called former external affairs minister Natwar Singh ‘dense’. During a question and answer session on the nuclear deal a few months ago, Lantos had not only ridiculed Mr Singh as ‘dense’, but warned that if India did change its policy toward Iran in sync with US policy, the relationship would “go down the tubes”.

He did not end there. “It was incomprehensible to me that people as sophisticated and knowledgeable as our Indian counterparts should not be aware of how significant their position, vis-à-vis Iran is to this Congress, and, I hope this hearing will make them aware at least tangentially that this may be destroying far more significant relationships than they are having with Tehran unless they become sensitive to our view on that subject,” he had told the panel.

This had evoked sharp reaction from the Indian side with its ambassador Ronen Sen calling Lantos’ language “crude”. After the latest development, Senate foreign relations committee leaders are still working on their version.

That panel is also expected to vote next week. Lantos said the House committee would vote on his and Hyde’s bill next Tuesday with action by the full House in July.

But Lantos said India had risked the chances of a positive vote with a recent decision to endorse a statement by the 114-member Non-Aligned Movement of mainly developing states that is “diametrically opposed” to the position on Iran taken by the United States and other permanent members of the U N Security Council — Russia, China, Britain and France —plus Germany.

The NAM, with India’s concurrence, recently ignored US calls to endorse the major powers’ June 6 offer and emphasised the right of all states “without any discrimination” to nuclear research and energy production.

“This is a very negative phenomenon and I honestly hope there will be a great deal of care taken by our Indian friends if they want this (nuclear co-operation agreement) to get through Congress and become reality,” Lantos said in Washington.

But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is under pressure from his government’s supporters in the Left to back the NAM’s stand on the issue. Lantos’ assertions are sure to be cited as yet another confirmation of the “growing pressure on the government” to abandon the policy of non-alignment.