The Hindu : National : Anti-Iran vote an "abject lesson" for India, says Lantos

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 04, 2005

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National

Anti-Iran vote an "abject lesson" for India, says Lantos

Special Correspondent

Talks about "growing emphasis on quid pro quo in U.S. foreign policy" "India's support will promote positive consideration in Congress of U.S.-India agreement... "

NEW DELHI: Tom Lantos, the U.S. legislator who led the charge against India's relations with Iran at Congressional hearings on the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal last month, has described the Manmohan Singh Government's decision finally to side with Washington at the IAEA on September 24 as "an abject lesson" for New Delhi.

According to a report by IANS news agency, Mr. Lantos told a House International Relations Committee hearing on U.N. reform on October 1 that India had been forced to make a choice. "There was a tremendous hop-up in the Indian media, and the government reacted strongly [to the criticisms made during the 8 September hearings of India's friendship with Iran]. But last Saturday, India voted with us in Vienna because it decided that it is more important to maintain its relationship with us than accommodate the Ayatollahs in Tehran. This is an abject lesson. And I think it's important for all of our friends and other countries abroad to understand that there will be a growing emphasis on quid pro quo in U.S. foreign policy... The age of naive idealism, I think, is over..."

Mr Lantos and other lawmakers had threatened not to back the July 18 nuclear deal unless India sided with the U.S. against Iran. These latest remarks echo the statement issued by Mr. Lantos soon after India voted against Iran in the International Atomic Energy Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, where he not only took credit for New Delhi's turnaround but also put the Manmohan Singh Government on notice for the next IAEA meeting in November.

"I am pleased that New Delhi clearly heard the message that I and other members have been emphatically trying to convey," Mr. Lantos said in a written statement on 26 September. "India's support this past weekend and next November, when Iran should finally be referred to the U.N. Security Council for action, will go a long way to cementing our new partnership. These actions will certainly promote positive consideration in Congress of the new U.S.-India agreement to expand peaceful nuclear cooperation between our two countries."

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