The Persian Puzzle

The United States has no intention of giving advice toIndia on how to deal with Iran, a top Bush administration officialsaid on Friday.

Acknowledging that India is a "sovereign country," Undersecretary ofState R. Nicholas Burns said, "India, like all sovereign countries,will decide what is in its best national interests."

"India does not need me or other State Department officials to givepublic advice, and we have too much respect for the Indians to dothat," he added.

Congressional sources have told Outlook that key members of Congress -including the influential chairman of the House Foreign AffairsCommittee, Congressman Tom Lantos, and a key friend of India's,Congressman Gary Ackerman, are concerned about India's relationshipwith Iran and its plans to build a gas pipeline.

India's ambassador to the U.S., Ronen Sen, told this correspondent inan interview earlier in the week that linking the civilian nuclearagreement "with any other issue – today it may be Iran, tomorrow itcan be some other issue – will be completely counter-productive. Itwould be totally unrealistic to expect a large and vibrant democracylike India to give up its independence of judgement and action. Thesooner this is realized the better."

Mr. Burns, responding to a question from Outlook, noted, "most of ourEuropean and Asian allies have diplomatic and commercial relationswith Iran, India does as well. So I don't think that India should bejudged against a standard that we don't ask others to do."

The U.S. and its allies suspect Iran's nuclear programmes are focusedtoward building a nuclear weapon. The Iranians have denied theseaccusations, asserting that it is trying to develop nuclear power.

Mr. Burns described Iran as "a very troublesome country on theinternational stage."

"It is seeking a nuclear weapons capability, it has been sanctionedtwice by the U.N. Security Council, it is funding and arming nearlyall the Middle East terrorist groups – so it is a country that isacting against the interests of peace in Lebanon, PalestinianTerritories, Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. "Because of that, webelieve, that countries should diminish their relations with Iran. Andwe say this to the Europeans, we say this to the Japanese, and we saynothing different to India. Our advice to all our friends and partnersis: Limit your economic relationship with Iran, don't agree to newinvestments, particularly in oil and gas, we say that to Europe,Japan, South Korea, the Arab countries as well as to India – andbecause we believe that Iran needs to be shown that in seeking tobecome a nuclear weapon state other countries will not conductbusiness as usual."

But, he noted, "I am not trying to give public advice. India will makeits own decision and the points that I have just given are consistentwith the points we give to every country."

The senior U.S. official said Washington hoped "that India willcontinue to participate in the international efforts that are peacefuland diplomatic, through the IAEA and the U.N., to convince theIranians to stop and convince the Iranians to negotiate. We hope thatIndia will be a strong supporter of that effort."

He pointed out that countries like Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa,China, Russia, the United Nations and Europe "are all in the samegroup" in their efforts to curb Iran's nuclear programme.

"It's a very large group. The only countries really supporting Iranare Syria and Belarus and Cuba and Venezuela," he added. "There is abig, big group of non-Aligned leaders and the P-5, we are actingtogether in the IAEA and the U.N. Security Council. So it seems to methat India is part of that group and should remain part of that groupalongside the other countries that I mentioned."