This was the first high level contact between the two countries since New Delhi voted against Tehran at the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting.
NEW DELHI: As the US and EU are moving towards hardening their stand on Iran in the UN Security Council, and laying the grounds for invoking a clause which allows armed intervention by the UN against countries threatening world peace, Iran’s vice president Rahim Mashaee met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday.
Though details of the talks between the two leaders are not known, Iran’s nuclear stand-off with the US expectedly came up for discussions, as Tehran is now keen to get as many countries as possible to back against the US-EU threats.
At the meeting, Singh and Mashaee emphasised the need for further strengthening of bilateral cooperation, particularly in the energy sector, an official said.
Iran has become a major domestic issue ever since India sided with the US at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). With both Russia and China voting with the US, New Delhi could take the sting out of the opposition argument over its vote. Now that the matter has gone to the United Nations Security Council, and India is not a non permanent member of it, the Manmohan Singh government’s problems would have been over. But things may not be so easy. Having got Iran referred to the UNSC, the US and EU, with strong support from Israel, are keen that UNSC does not take a wishy-washy stand. The UK, with support from the US now wants a resolution to be issued against Iran, which would change the emphasis from Iran “voluntarily’’ giving up its nuclear programme to making it “mandatory’’ on Iran to do so.
The word “mandatory’’ could open the way for forced intervention by allied forces. It may not mean an invasion but targeting and destroying Iran’s nuclear programme with precision bombing. Though this has not been publicly said yet, the grounds for this are being laid. Some of these plans made by the EU, were reported in the British press. However it would be difficult to get Russia and China to go along with US, Britain and France on this.
Rahim Mashaee, the Chairman of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation of Iran is in India to participate in the Amir Khusro seminar being organised by Jamia Millia University. He took the opportunity to present his country’s case to Singh. Despite its vote against Iran, India has managed to partly repair its ties with Tehran. The India-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline is still on the table, and the PM recently agreed that Russia should be involved in the project.
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