Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) Four days after the US-led Nuclear Security Summit in the US, Iran, under intense international pressure over its nuclear programme, will be hosting a conference on nuclear disarmament and has sought India’s support for this initiative.
Iran is likely to invite India formally for the conference entitled “Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapon for None”, scheduled for April 17-18, diplomatic sources said here.

The Iranian leadership is also expected to discuss the nuclear issue when External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna visits Tehran, likely next month. Krishna was set to go to Tehran last week, but clashing engagements led to a last-minute postponement.

The Iranian government is inviting ministers, officials, academics and nuclear experts from over 60 countries for the conference, a pet project of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to highlight disparities in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) regime.

In November last year, India had backed an international resolution against Iran over its nuclear programme, but qualified it by saying it was opposed to “a renewed punitive approach or sanctions” and stressed the need for “keeping doors open for dialogue”.

India had voted for the resolution, passed by a 25-3 margin at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-member board’s meeting in Vienna.

Earlier also, India had voted twice against the Iranian nuclear programme, while backing Tehran’s right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy within the purview of the NPT.

But despite these differences, Iran, isolated by the West over its atomic programme suspected of developing nuclear weapons, is keen for the Indian participation in the conference, which it believes, can add some legitimacy to what is widely seen as another tactic to deflect the Western pressure over its nuclear ambitions.

New Delhi will formulate its response only after a formal invitation comes for the conference, sources said.

It will be tricky for India to lend support to such an initiative, specially at a time when the US is looking at as New Delhi as a partner in bolstering the global non-proliferation regime and New Delhi itself is facing pressure to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and NPT.

Iran will figure prominently in the 42-nation Nuclear Security Summit, US President Barack Obama is hosting in Washington April 12-13 and in the May review conference of the NPT.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will represent India at the Washington summit which aims at securing the world from the danger of nuclear terrorism and is designed to give a push to nuclear disarmament.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the US, Britain, France, China and Russia and Germany, are actively engaged in negotiations to impose a fresh set of sanctions on Iran ahead of the NPT review conference.