Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh to visit Iran despite regional tensions

Hyderabad
12 March 2012

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's much-anticipated visit to Iran this year can be expected to serve the dual purpose of maintaining India's ties with Iran on an even keel and kickstarting peace talks with Pakistan.

Tehran will host the 16th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in September.

His visit to the Iranian capital will, literally, be couched in nonalignment, coming as it will in the midst of a brewing crisis in West Asia, between Iran and Israel, and between the Shiite and Sunni blocs represented by Iran and Saudi Arabia, respectively.

It will follow the visits by external affairs minister SM Krishna to Israel, and defence minister AK Antony to Saudi Arabia. Also, it will be the first visit by an Indian premier to Iran in over a decade, after Atal Bihari Vajpayee's in 2001.

Prime Minister Singh's proposed visit to Tehran is being described as a manifestation of India's balanced and equitable relationships with various protagonists in the region. A broad-based relationship with the region is a welcome shift in policy, particularly after the narrow-minded pursuit of interests in the run-up to the signing of the India-US nuclear deal.

India and Pakistan are among the 120 members of the NAM. Besides interacting with the host, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Prime Minister Singh is likely to re-engage his Pakistan counterpart, Yousuf Raza Gilani, on the margins of the summit.

The prime ministers of India and Pakistan last met in November 2011 on the sidelines of the Saarc summit in the Maldives. Incidentally, it was on the margins of the last NAM summit, hosted by Egypt in the Red Sea resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh in 2009, that prime ministers Singh and Gilani agreed to insulate the peace talks from "action on terrorism".

Prime Minister Singh will be hoping that peace with Pakistan will be his legacy, as India heads for elections in 2014. The Singh-Gilani talks will be preceded by Mr Krishna's visit to Islamabad.

Russia ticks off US on Iran; cautions Washington against provoking Tehran

Moscow

26 December 2005

As the European Union's nuclear negotiations

with Iran remain delicately poised, a top Russian official has cautioned

the United States against precipitating an avoidable crisis and urged

Washington to refrain from making provocative statements.

"If the US [continues its] provocation against Iran, there is no prediction

which way [Iran] will go," a top Russian official told this newspaper. On

Russia's position, he said, "We have told Iran not to go beyond the limits

of energy purposes and the supply of nuclear fuel".

The remarks flow from concerns about the likelihood of a situation

developing in Russia's proximity that was "not in favour of Moscow".

There is also a perception that if Iran goes nuclear, it will pose a "real

threat" to Russia more than the US.

Concerns have also been expressed by certain quarters about a

breakdown in the talks and a showdown early next year when the board of

governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) holds a

regular meeting in Vienna.

The EU and the US are backing the Russian proposal that would allow

Iran to enrich uranium on Russian territory. Doing so would prevent

Tehran from diverting enriched uranium towards its nuclear weapons

programme.

Tehran on Sunday rejected Moscow's offer to process uranium for Iran on

Russian soil. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia had on Saturday

said that its proposal to facilitate "on Russian soil a joint Russo-Iranian

undertaking to enrich uranium still stands".

Iran, which resumed discussions with the EU negotiators -- Britain, France

and Germany -- last week, insisted on its right to produce enriched

uranium while maintaining that it was keen only on meeting its energy

requirements. The next round of talks are expected on January 18.

Russia and China abstained from voting in the September 24 meeting of

the IAEA. Their decision blocked the moves to refer Iran to the United

Nations Security Council. Both Russia and China also have veto powers

as permanent members of the Security Council.