NEW DELHI: The Left parties on Wednesday registered their "strong protest" over India's vote against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting and expressed apprehension that it would affect New Delhi's relations with Teheran.

Asserting that the decision was taken under U.S. pressure, the Left parties told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that India should not have voted against Iran especially as both Russia and China had abstained.

"We told the Prime Minister that you have come under pressure of the United States. We are unhappy with the vote and think it will hamper India-Iran diplomatic and economic relations ... the vote could have been avoided and we have registered our strong protest," Revolutionary Socialist Party MP and Central Committee member Abani Roy told correspondents here.

Communist Party of India general secretary A.B. Bardhan, national secretary D. Raja and Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury are the other Left leaders who participatedin the breakfast meeting at the Prime Minister's official residence. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and other officials were also present.

Mr. Raja said the Left parties clearly conveyed their differences with the Government.

Clarification needed

The Left leaders drew attention to reports in The Hindu that Iran had conveyed to India that the $21-billion liquefied natural gas export deal was off. Mr. Roy said a clarification on the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project was also needed in the wake of U.S. statements objecting to it.

Mr. Yechury said India should assure the world that the Iran issue would not figure in the United Nations Security Council. The vote at the IAEA meeting was not of any consequence to the final outcome;it was a positioning vote giving an impression that India had aligned with the U.S.

Mr. Mukherjee acknowledged that there were differences between the Government and the Left parties on the issue.

The Congress defended the Government's decision and expressed confidence that the historic relations between India and Iran would not be affected.

Party spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said the Government's stand was dictated by India's well-being and peace in world. India's stand helped Iran, as the issue was not referred to the Security Council immediately as had been demanded.

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