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Bush trying to isolate Iran diplomatically New York, September 14 Amid the widespread belief that Washington’s efforts at this juncture might be too little, too late, Mr Bush has lobbied in this regard with Chinese President Hu Jintao as well as Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. He also intends undertaking a similar exercise with the Russian President Vladmir Putin on Friday. At the very core are Iran’s right to enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium. These are technologies that can be used to make fuel for nuclear power plants or nuclear weapons. Even as Tehran insists that it is legally permitted to develop those technologies for peaceful purposes under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the US and certain other countries believe Iran wants to use them to build nuclear weapons. Mr Bush’s discussion with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Iran also centred around its concerns but India’s averment of its stand that it is against proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and assurance to play a “positive role” at the September 18 meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency has satisfied the US President. Earlier this week, Mr Bush wondered in Washington why Iran required civilian nuclear power as they are awash with hydrocarbons. At the same time it is the right of a government to want to have a civilian nuclear programme. Nevertheless, Mr Bush insisted that Iran should not be allowed to gain technical skill that would enable it to make weapons. The US President observed that “it is very important for the world to understand that Iran with a nuclear weapon will be incredibly destabilising.” US Under Secretary of State for political affairs R. Nicholas Burns described Iran as probably the most important issue being discussed on the margins of the UN General Assembly session. The Bush administration is worried about what they perceive as the mood shift in Tehran. Shortly before President Ahmadinejad took office last month, Iran announced that it would end the freeze on nuclear development activities it had agreed to in November during the negotiations with Britain, France and Germany or the EU-3. With the IAEA Board of Governors scheduled to meet on Monday, the US is actively trying to immediately force a vote to send the Iran case to the UN Security Council though “no one has actually decided on that as yet.” |
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Pak told to honour
promise on ending terror New York, September 14 General Musharraf is understood to have given this solemn
undertaking to Dr Manmohan Singh when the latter had telephoned him
from Washington on July 18 after India and the US had agreed to
cooperate in the civilian nuclear energy sphere by removing all the
stumbling blocks.
Sources disclosed that General Musharraf had told the Prime
Minister that he would bring infiltration under control within a month
but that has failed to fructify. Dr Manmohan Singh is expected to
persuade his Pakistani guest to deliver his promise for any meaningful
progress in the normalisation of relations between the two South Asian
neighbours. At the same time, Dr Manmohan Singh and General Musharraf
are expected to announce certain other decisions to keep the momentum
of the peace process going.
New Delhi does not hedge in acknowledging that while infiltration
has definitely come down, the scale of violence by Pakistan-aided
terrorists has not abated but shown a marked increase as is usually
evidenced close to the Independence day celebrations of India and
Pakistan and spilling over to September.
Dr Manmohan Singh had also informed US President George Bush during
their interface here last evening that while progress had been
achieved in the Indo-Pak dialogue, “the flow of terror must stop for
any realistic progress”. There was no ambiguity in the message that
the US must put pressure on Pakistan in ending crossborder terrorism,
especially it is a frontline State in the scheme of things of the US
in the international fight against this menace.
Considering the chemistry that has developed between Dr Manmohan
Singh and General Musharraf, the Prime Minister will once again nudge
the Pakistani leader to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure across
the border in that country.
Sources insist that unless terrorist violence, which cannot be
unleashed in a vacuum, is brought to an end in Jammu and Kashmir, New
Delhi’s endeavours to put in place a ceasefire in the Valley does
not hold water now that the separatist All-Party Hurriyat Conference
(APHC) has met Dr Manmohan Singh in New Delhi last week.
The moderate Hurriyat leaders have found their face-to-face with Dr
Manmohan Singh promising and their Chief Mirwaiz Umer Farooq is flying
here to brief General Musharraf early next week. Clearly, General
Musharraf has backed the APHC to have a dialogue with the Manmohan
Singh government for resolving the protracted Kashmir problem.
All sections agree that there are no quick-fix solutions, but at
least a beginning has been made which needs to be sustained. Dr
Manmohan Singh has asked the Hurriyat leaders to come forward with
specific issues. These will be taken up at the second meeting that Dr
Manmohan Singh will have with them and put in place a mechanism for
continuing the dialogue. The Hurriyat now acknowledges that it is not
the sole representative of the people of J and K but that some
sections are with it in the troubled border state.
The Prime Minister is expected to go over the ground covered so far
and take in the assessment of General Musharraf who has his own
compulsions before his constituents in Pakistan. Dr Manmohan Singh
reaffirmed that while there could be no redrawing of boundaries, the
Indo-Pak border should become irrelevant by pursuing greater
people-to-people contacts and concentrating on direly needed
developmental endeavours.
Earlier in the day, Dr Manmohan Singh launched the United Nations
Democracy Fund along with Mr Bush. It was the US which had proposed
the Democracy Fund and India supported it.
Dr Manmohan Singh supported the establishment of the UN Democracy
Fund and announced a substantial financial contribution. The objective
is to assist in globally strengthening the values of freedom,
pluralism and the rule of law. Through the fund, India will encourage
and support the United Nations in responding to requests of countries
in the democratic transition of electoral assistance, constitution
drafting and national capital building.
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