BackTies with Iran not in contravention of UNSC resolutions: India
Ties with Iran not in contravention of UNSC resolutions: India
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Washington: In the backdrop of apprehensions expressed by some senior US lawmakers over New Delhi’s ties with Tehran, India today asserted that its dealings with Iran were not in any way a contravention of UN Security Council Resolutions.
Addressing Congressional concerns on Iran, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said he is not sure from where these stories on some dubious India-Iran military nexus are coming from.
“Nothing that India does with Iran is in any way contravention of the United Nations Security Council Resolutions. Much of what we do is normal between states and done with Iran by several other states," the Foreign Secretary told reporters at the Indian Embassy.
Last week, some senior US lawmakers dubbed India’s continuing ties with Tehran a “potentially serious barrier to future cooperation with the US" and urged New Delhi to “cease all military cooperation with Iran immediately".
In a letter to be delivered to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, senior lawmakers led by Republican Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona and Democrat Barbara Boxer of California hoped India will “publicly declare your intent to refrain from further cooperation with Iran until that nation has completely and verifiably ceased its pursuit of nuclear weapons and its support for international terrorism."
India’s principles are poorly served and its interests “damaged" by its support for the Iranian military, the senators argued.
Two House Democrats also recently wrote a letter to US President George W Bush to press India “to immediately cease military-to-military contact and cooperation with Iran".
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