PM tells Left: Iran vote averted tension

CPI(M) MP Sitaram Yechury said that the Left demanded that the government should announce that it would not support taking the Iranian issue to the UN Security Council. CPI’s D. Raja said that in view of the sharp differences between the two sides, the Left parties would convene a meeting on the issue.

The PM did not dwell on Tehran’s immediate reaction to the vote. Instead, he argued that India — by getting the original resolution diluted — had bought time for diplomacy to avoid an immediate confrontation.

According to the PM, if the original resolution had been taken up by the IAEA, it would have been sent to the Security Council as the US and EU-3 enjoyed a brute majority on the board of the nuclear watchdog.

The Left parties were represented by Yechury, CPI’s A B Bardhan and D Raja, and RSP’s Abani Roy. The Prime Minister was assisted by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Principal Secretary T.K.A. Nair and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran. CPI(M)’s General Secretary Prakash Karat is in Chennai and Foreign Minister Natwar Singh is returning from Canada tomorrow.

Top government sources confirmed that the PM is convinced that New Delhi did the right thing at Vienna and is prepared to explain the stand to the Opposition parties, including the BJP.

As Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee put it : ‘‘Obviously, there are different positions taken by different parties. But we have briefed them on our point of view.’’

But the Left made it clear that it was not convinced by the government’s argument that India’s IAEA vote had actually bought time for diplomacy to work on a consensus between Iran and the US over the next two months, when the matter comes up again. They argued that India could have sent a diplomatic message that it was firmly behind Iran. Instead, it had now put itself in the US camp.

Later, Yechury said: ‘‘We think it (the Iran vote) does not comply with the Common Minimum Programme (of the UPA) which talks about an independent foreign policy. From this position it seems, we are following a pro-US policy.’’