Driven by myopia and sheer bloody-mindedness, the United States and 11 other members of the United Nations Security Council have voted to tighten sanctions on Iran. Brazil and Turkey, which recently brokered an important fuel swap agreement with Tehran, voted against the sanctions resolution while Lebanon abstained. What matters is not the specific provisions contained in the latest round of sanctions but the fact that Washington insisted on pushing them through just when a small window for confidence-building and trust between Iran and the international community had been opened by the Turkish-Brazilian initiative. Under their proposal, which the International Atomic Energy Agency is now considering, Iran will promptly transfer 1,200 kg of low enriched uranium — roughly half the amount the IAEA estimates it has produced to date — to Turkey, where it would be held in escrow. Russia and France would then fabricate an equivalent amount of enriched uranium fuel rods suitable for use in the Tehran Research Reactor. Once these rods are ready, they will be exchanged for the Iranian LEU.
Although the swap addresses an issue distinct from the one Iran is currently being sanctioned for, the successful implementation of the agreement would have been a major confidence-building measure. The U.S. and its allies would have succeeded in removing from the territory of Iran half its LEU stockpile — an amount that could theoretically be used to fabricate one nuclear device should Iran leave the Non-Proliferation Treaty and start weapons-grade enrichment. From the Iranian point of view, it would have demonstrated that the international community was capable of reasonableness and flexibility. From there, the Turks and Brazilians, perhaps supplemented by other powers, might have been able to move their engagement with Iran to a higher level, securing answers to the few remaining questions the IAEA has about the Iranian nuclear programme. But Wednesday's sanctions resolution changes everything. They send a signal to the diverse stakeholders in Tehran that reasonableness doesn't pay. Iran is likely to harden its attitude, thereby allowing the U.S. and its allies to take one more step down the path of confrontation. India, which has a major economic and strategic stake in the preservation of peace in the Persian Gulf and West Asia, should stop being a passive bystander to the crisis that is now looming large. By insisting on sanctions at this stage, the P-5 have only succeeded in scoring own goals. India may not be a member of the U.N. Security Council but that should not preclude it from actively pursuing a diplomatic end to the standoff.
Keywords: UN sanctions, Iran
One of the primary reasons why Iran is so isolated is because a nuclear Iran is seen by its neighbours (the Arabs) as their biggest threat, bigger than the Israeli threat.
Saudi Arabia cannot allow a Shia state with a nuclear weapon, and neither can Pakistan.
India should just stay out of this one. A nuclear Iran is no asset to India either. Enough of this talk about our "civilizational links with Iran". Whatever cultural connections existed thousands of years ago is long gone and it is irrelevant in today's foreign policy choices.
All those who are commenting that India should be like Iran - none of you would be even able to comment on an open internet like this if India had been like the Iranian despotic regime. Everytime you want to cosy up to rouge nations like Iran, North Korea and Libya - remember, its the US and the West that have actively kept the crazies in these countries in check. If the US did not take the heavy toll it has by deaths in Afghanistan and spending to keep these rogue states in check, the Indian (and the Chinese, Brazilian, Japanese, Korean) economy would be sputtering and millions would be dying of starvation - many of you forget the 50' and 60's.
Know your friends and enemies well before you pick one.
india should learn from turkey and brazil.if something goes bad in gulf of persia surely will harm india and india's policy makers must carved out independent foreign policy if u really aspire to b a global power not mere spporter of US policy only for smaller gains.
A needless provocation? It is more like a needless pontification on your part on an issue that does not concern you or the people of India. Here is a mad man, the very President of Iran, who denies the holocaust, who nourishes terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hizbulla and openly adovcates for the total destruction of Israel and you dare speak in support of this rabid nation?
Your only reason is your entrenched anti-West phobia.
Stop grandstanding!
Iran is sitting on a sea of petroleum that CAN give its citizens a fantastic life today and ensure its peace and progress for the next 100 years. But apparantly that's not good enough for President Ahmadinejad, who is building a nuclear facility for "peaceful purposes". A nuclear bomb in Iran's hands is not in the world's interests (certainly not Iran's or India's). But nevermind, Ahmadinejad wants to become the father of his nation and is putting his claim to fame ahead of his country's interests. Otherwise he would have done like Libya's Col. Qadhafi did a few years ago when he accepted the responsibility for the Lockerby bombing, which cleared the way for the West to lift all sanctions. Now Libya is no longer the international pariah that it was, and what Iran sadly continue to be.
The key for Iran's acceptance in the comity of nations and its long term succes is for Ahmadinejad to genuinely abandon his personal ambitions. Iran is one of the most well endowed counties on earth. It must not allow nuclear-minded leaders to squander its resources and subject its citizens to untold misery, and ruin its future.
Sir
India's foriegn policy is always to better to project its strategic interests rather than ideological goals. India has major economic and strategic intrest in the Middle East, but that has nothing to do with Iran. Most of the Middle East countries where our economic intrests are not allies of Iran, but adversaries like GCC.
As far as Iran pursues an ideological foriegien policy based on its narrow global perspectives India cant go along with it. Iran is not a reliable ally of India as far as our global visions are concerned.
The Iran baiters must see the fact that even Russia and China were against Iran in their misadventures in Nuclear matter. What the well-wishers of Iran has to advise them is to do away with the confrontationist policies and return to a mature global vision.
History will repeat itself. NATO will leave Afghanistan like the Soviets have left. Karzai will be toppled like Najibullah. Talibans will return along with their cronies. Pakistan's dominant military and ISI with their myopic perspective will be in cahoots with the terrorists in their avarice to control Afghanistan and Kashmir Valley. May be one day Pakistan itself will be consumed by terrorism, the flames of which will surely try to lick India. It is the solemn duty of all the Governments in India and all its societies to do fireproofing from right now. It is high time poverty, illiteracy and injustice is eradicted denying access to extremist organizations from harvesting misguided Muslim youths. It is a compulsion that Babri Masjid and Gujarat episodes must never occur again. The simple logic is, Parliamentary attack and Mumbai massacre would never have happened without domestic help.
This is a USA cultural pattern. It's the same pattern they showed in prohibition, in the drug war, and in hitting BP oil during the spill. They reflexively punish, their own people and others. I think they formed the pattern during their revolution, sharpened it during their unnecessary civil war, and thrive on it now. One of the things we need in North America is to be able to read and hear more commentary like you have here today.
I can't understand the reasoning. If the countries that are drafting these sactions can have nuclear weapons. Why can't Iran have it. Why isn't this blatant double standards not visible to anyone.
During the past two decades, India has been a bystander on virtually every international issue that does not relate to Pakistan. Its silence on the Iran sanctions is thus not surprising at all, and neither is its tolerance of the repressive regime in Myanmar. Nehru, great visionary and ardent supporter of an international role for India as he was, would be disappointed with the trajectory his nation has chosen to follow.
You put one step wrong and You will regret it life-long. Israel is not a signatory to nuclear non-proliferation treaty and it enjoys possession of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately Iran has signed the treaty and is paying dearly for it. No one in his sane mind will expect India to break its romance with US and support Iran.
Thank god! India is not in the security council and there is no scope for berating India's foreign policy, and possibly from a nation-wide leftist bandh.
The UN seems to be increasingly irrelevant in today's politics. A new democratic comity of nations must be formed comprising China, Iran, North Korea, Turkey, Brazil, Lebanon, Syrian, Venezuela, Cuba, Libya, Palestine, Egypt,etc. and India must be at the vanguard of such a unity. Such a forum can take the right stand on many international issues today better than the UN.
India's foriegn diplomacy is so weak and shy.We should learn ourselves to stand tight and say our perspective without any fears.This is not an good attitude especially towards Iran which has got cultural and buisiness ties dating back to centuries. Also if really India needs to be a superpower and want to engage in meaningful ,carve a respectful mediatory in international diplomacy india needs to learn to engage and voice their concerns independently.
India's views are just watery terms and no firm language .They are just carefully made by officers so that it never hurts U.S interests.We should look to future : world power is shifting from unipolar to multi-polar ,mainly to be dominated by developing nations like brazil and china.
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