India joins non-Western powers to oppose sweeping Iran sanctions

As the Obama Administration seeks to win support at the United Nations for an additional set of sanctions against Iran’s nuclear defiance of the international system,Tehran is launching a diplomatic offensive of its own.

Iran has convened a two-day meeting — called ‘Nuclear Energy For All,Nuclear Weapons For No One’ — that starts in Tehran on April 17,a week after the U S President Obama-hosted summit on nuclear security.

Many leading non-Western nations,including India,are expected to participate in the conference. Tehran sees the conference as a stage for mobilising opinion at a review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at the United Nations in May.

Senior officials in Tehran claim that “foreign ministers from 14 countries,10 deputy foreign ministers,representatives of eight regional and international conferences and experts from 70 countries” will join the conference.

In a joint communiqué issued at the end of their deliberations,the leaders of the IBSA forum — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,President of Brazil Lula da Silva and South African President Jacob Zuma — “recognised the right of Iran to develop nuclear programmes for peaceful purposes in keeping with its international obligations”.

The three leaders also called on “Iran to full cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and comply with the relevant resolutions”.

The summit of the BRIC forum (Brazil,Russia,India and China) did not address the issue of Iran sanctions directly. Two BRIC members,Russia and China,are represented in the UN Security Council,and are actively participating in the debate on additional sanctions.

While the reluctance of Moscow and Beijing to impose immediate sanctions against Iran is well-known,Brazil has emerged as a major voice in favour of international restraint. President Lula is scheduled to visit Iran next month.

According to Brazil’s foreign minister,Celso Amorim,Lula discussed the issue of Iran sanctions with the Russian,Chinese and Indian leaders here. “Lula reaffirmed his conviction,based on past experiences and on Iran’s situation itself,that sanctions not only are inefficient but in some cases can be counterproductive even for the objectives (for which) they are being applied”,Amorim added.

The minister denied that Brazil had become “pro-Iran” and said that Brasilia favours “negotiated solutions to global problems”.