Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Iran should have gotten India's vote, says ex-envoy

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, Oct 5, IRNA
India-Iran vote-Ex-envoy
By voting for the Iran resolution moved by the EU-3 in the September 24 meeting of the IAEA board of governors in Vienna, India may have squandered an opportunity to reciprocate Iran's gesture of stopping a resolution on Jammu and Kashmir from being passed by the Organization of the Islamic Conference that prevented it from being tabled in the United Nations Human Rights Commission's annual meeting in Geneva.

In a parallel laced with irony, the Manmohan Singh government has undone what his party, the Congress under the premiership of the late P.V. Narasimha Rao, had sought to achieve when the late external affairs minister Dinesh Singh carried Rao's letter addressed to the Iranian leadership to seek Tehran's help only weeks ahead of the OIC and UN meetings, according to a former ambassador of India to Iran, M.K. Bhadra Kumar.

The deplomat went on to assert that the Iran issue was not about the nuclear program but of controlling energy reserves and India could have effected a radical departure from its position without adedquate consensus at home.

Citing Tehran's gesture in 1994, he questioned the claims by the Congress "core group" that Iran had not been a helpful neighbor and was prone to take a pro-Pakistan stance in the international fora, especially at the OIC.

"Iran ensured that no harm was done to India and that India did not have to come to the witness box," the former Indian envoy recalled.

"There are many parallels that can be drawn between 1994 and now; both IAEA and the OIC work on the basis of consensus, but after Iran's objection consensus was lost and the resolution on Jammu and Kashmir could not be tabled. India could have made a reciprocal gesture when the IAEA vote came up."
Questioning the logic of this "unprincipled and cowardly" decision to vote against Iran, Bhadra Kumar observed that Iran's gesture had come at a time when India was going through a difficult period.

"There was an economic crisis and communal tension; India was vulnerable to American pressure and Kashmir was witnessing perhaps the bloodiest phase coupled with the Clinton administration's unhelpful attitude. The collapse of the erstwhile USSR was another factor." He felt that the September 24 vote reinforced the belief that "India has notorious difficulty with friendships" and that she is not a "good team player."
The diplomat also felt that India's vote diminished her standing and also undercut her eligibility for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council.

A similar vote in the November meeting of the IAEA, he cautioned, could cause irreparable damage and affect India's credibility.

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