Washington has given Tehran the cold shoulder but in that standoff it's the US that is increasingly looking like the isolated side. Russia recently delivered a couple of dozen, advanced surface-to-air missile batteries to Iran. The Euros are talking to Iran, trying to resolve the nuclear fuel enrichment problem. Pakistan's president Musharraf has announced he's going to have a round of talks with Ahmadinejad about defusing Middle East violence.
Now Indian and Iranian officials are meeting to discuss energy issues and to patch up the differences between the two countries. It's a bold move for India which has recently been drawing closer to the US, angering the left whose support is critical to the Indian government.
At some risk is the recent India-US deal to open the supply of US fuel and nuclear technology to India. Already passed by congress there remains one unfulfilled requirement - an annual report by president Bush to Congress verifying that New Delhi is assisting in efforts to restrain Tehran's development of nuclear technology.
India wants American nuclear technology but it also wants and needs Iranian gas. To Washington's displeasure, plans are underway to build an $8-billion dollar pipeline from Iran, through Pakistan, to India. New Delhi is aware that China also wants and is competing for Iranian oil.
India obviously wants both deals. That's led it to cast itself as a potential interlocutor, a middleman, to help iron out the conflicts between Washington and Tehran. Given that George Bush is adamantly opposed to direct talks with Iran, India could be useful to both sides.
2 comments:
You are opportunistic, Mound of Sound. I am not sure what you think of Bush approving nuclear transfers to India. Is this a major violation of NPT than what the Iranians have ever attempted???? Who's to say that India will not transfer its nuclear technology to Iran. Both are threatened by a nuclear armed Pakistan. You can even argue that everyone seems to believe that a nuclear armed Iran is not a bad thing - with the exception of Israel and a handful of neo-cons sitting in Washington and Calgary.
'shroom - the NPT is only relevant to the extent Bush wants it to be. That's the net result of his unilateralism. I will say that India won't transfer its nuclear technology to Iran. India wants Western technology and access to Western markets far too much to risk that. They're pretty shrewd.
I think a nuclear-armed Iran would be a terrible development, if only because it would give many other nations in that region a reason, a valid one at that, to develop their own weapons, probably in a collaborative effort among Arab states.
Still, the US and Iran need to talk on the nuclear issue and on a raft of regional stability questions. Since Bush won't talk directly, India could serve as his intermediary.
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