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Leave it to IAEA, says Pranab

NEW DELHI: A day after firmly turning down the U.S. advice, India made it clear that it was for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to decide on the nature of Iran’s nuclear programme.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the U.S. could not arrogate to itself the right to determine whether Iran’s nuclear programme was peaceful or not.

“We are advising Iran that since it is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty [NPT], it has some obligation to international treaties. We are telling the U.S. ‘do not take on yourself the responsibility whether Iran was manufacturing weapons or not. Leave it to the IAEA, the designated authority’,” Mr. Mukherjee said during an interaction with reporters at an orientation programme on parliamentary reporting here on Wednesday.

“It is not for me or for Iran to certify... it is for the IAEA to convince themselves whether [Tehran’s programme] is peaceful,” he said.

Reacting strongly to U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey’s observations in Washington on Tuesday, the External Affairs Ministry spokesman said India could do without any guidance in the matter. Mr. Casey had expressed the hope that India would ask Iran, during President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to New Delhi, to suspend its uranium enrichment activities.

Responding to a query on Mr. Casey’s advice, Mr. Mukherjee said his Ministry’s spokesman already responded to it and that was “correct.”

Describing the Ministry’s response as “good,” CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said the issue had to be taken up “more seriously.” It was made clear to Washington that India would not brook any unsolicited advice on its bilateral relations with Iran.

He demanded that the U.S. Ambassador in New Delhi be summoned and told in no “uncertain terms” that India knew how to conduct its foreign policy independently.

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