Negotiators await 'approach IAEA’ signal

NEW DELHI: Even as political deliberations continued on the nuclear deal, the team of negotiators who have been piloting the deal through its various stages, are eagerly waiting for the green signal from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for approaching the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) secretariat. Amid growing fears that time might have already run out for the deal, official sources said that the intention to go ahead with the nuclear deal has been conveyed to Indian interlocutors by the political leadership.

But they are still to get the nod to approach IAEA and start the process of calling a meeting of the IAEA board of governors to approve the IAEA safeguards agreement.
But there is increasing frustration among supporters of the nuclear deal with continuing delays. Even though the political leadership might have stated its intention of going ahead with the nuclear deal, sources said they would believe it only after the government approached IAEA.

A diplomatic source said that the IAEA stage would require a couple of weeks as the task of presenting the safeguards agreement to the scrutiny and approval of the members countries of the IAEA board of governors was time consuming. The source, indicated that there was no way of saying at this point what the timeframe would look like as there were many factors at play.

The source, who was keen to highlight the fact that the deal was more than just between India and US, but a package deal with other countries, said that there were 40 countries in NSG which would read the technical papers and then seek clarification. All this, the source said, would take another couple of weeks. ``The sooner the better. We hope this process will be carried out rapidly,������ he said.

The source indicated that friends of the nuclear deal have started talking to concerned countries within NSG. Though most of them understand and are willing to give an exemption to India, some countries, the source admitted, had expressed reservations, while others wanted clarification. The source on an optimistic note said that a powerful group of countries are going to convince the other NSG members.

Ireland, New Zealand and Sweden have already expressed reservations about supporting a waiver for India and Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Belgium Poland and Finland have opposed the nuclear deal.