India will push Iran to abide by its nuclear obligation

TEHRAN: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh landed here on his maiden visit to a country at a time when Iran is a bad name with the West and amid severe sanctions from the US and the European Union.

Consider: Iran is Israel's favourite enemy and Israel is India's particular friend. India's closest partners in the Persian Gulf believe Iran is sponsoring unrest among the Shias in their countries. Iran is pursuing a nuclear programme that India, along with most other nations, believes is hugely destabilizing for the region.

PM Singh, dogged by coalgate at home is spending three days in Tehran, including the first 24 hours of down time. Singh landed on Tuesday evening in Tehran, received by Iran's finance minister Dr Seyed Shamsedin Hoseini. But Singh's bilateral meeting with the Iranian leadership is not until Wednesday evening, and the only other leader PM meets is the Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina.

Yet, it would be fair to say that Singh, along with the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, is probably one of the most important heads of government at the NAM summit. Iran is looking at the summit as a huge vote of confidence in its policies, with over 25 heads of government in attendance. In his bilateral meetings with the Iranian leadership on Wednesday, Singh may introduce a more sobering note. While India has little expectation of being able to influence Iranian behaviour on the nuclear question, official sources said they would push Iran to abide by "its obligations".

Singh will also catch up on some bilateral engagements with others like meeting the Nepalese PM Baburam Bhattarai and Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

A more important meeting will be with new Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi since India is renewing its engagement with Cairo. The meeting with the Pakistani president Asif Zardari is still to be confirmed.