Washington: The United States on Thursday defended the civilian nuclear deal with India, saying that it materialised only after New Delhi's commitment to meet non-proliferation goals.

As Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran was holding crucial talks with lawmakers and officials, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack countered the remarks made by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier that the deal came at a wrong time, when international efforts were for curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Non-proliferation issues

"Our view, in sum, is that at the end of the day, India has been a responsible member of the international community when it comes to issues of non-proliferation," Mr. McCormack said. Iran, on the other hand, "has abrogated its treaty obligations not to seek to develop a nuclear weapon, continually lied to the international community about that, [and] continually deceived the international community about that. And, certainly we do have concerns about Iran's involvement in [the] proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."

He also mentioned how the Iranian regime had contacts with the network of Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan. "So the track record of Iran with regard to non-proliferation behaviour stands in stark contrast to [that of] India."

Critics assailed

Condemning the parallels drawn by critics, Mr. McCormack said, "It is on merits of behaviour by the Indian Government that we have concluded the agreement, and are now working with the Congress to seek some changes in U.S. law that would allow that agreement to be fully implemented."

President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "as well as other members of this administration have talked about the importance of this agreement. And certainly we have talked about it in the past, how we would differ with anybody who tries to make any comparisons between the behaviour of Iran and the behaviour of India."

Mr. Steinmeier said in an interview to German daily Handelsblatt that the deal between the U.S. and India was not helpful given that it came in the midst of talks on curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions. — UNI

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