"We have capabilities and capacities. We believe that we understand better," Narayanan said at an international seminar that was also attended by former US ambassador to India Robert Blackwill.
"Iran is a big country and you need to deal with them diplomatically and with erudition," he said. Being a neighbor with a large Shiite population, "any mishandling", Narayanan stressed, will impact negatively on India.
23 April 2008: FNA
TEHRAN (FNA)- India reacted sharply to US pressure on its advice on dealing with Iran, making it clear that India and Iran are capable of managing all aspects of their bilateral relations.
The Indian foreign ministry said neither country needed "any guidance on the future conduct of bilateral relations" as both countries believe engagement and dialogue alone lead to peace.
A terse statement by the foreign ministry spokesman said India and Iran were ancient civilizations whose relations spanned centuries. Both nations, the ministry statement added, were "perfectly capable of managing all aspects of their relationship with the appropriate degree of care and attention."
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to make a brief stopover in New Delhi on Tuesday, April 29 in connection with talks over the pipeline that would ferry natural gas from Iran to India through Pakistan. Ahmadinejad's talks with the Indian Prime Minister will also cover a wide range of other bilateral and international issues.
The US Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey had wanted India to advise Iran to give up its NPT right of uranium enrichment activities in line with the UN Security Council's demands during Ahmadinejad's visit to New Delhi.
The Washington administration does not favor the gas sales as it is concerned that the revenues may be used by Iran to finance its nuclear program. The United States, in turn, has lobbied for a gas pipeline from the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to India. India is considering both options, reports said.
Ahmadinejad's visit will be closely watched in Washington that has tried to undermine Tehran-New Delhi ties on different occasions.
India's vote against the Iranian nuclear program at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), first in 2005 and again in 2006, had created some strain in ties, but New Delhi never failed to reiterate its commitment to strengthening relations with Iran.
India has repeatedly supported Iran's right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy under international rules.
Underlining "close civlizational and economic ties" between the two countries, India's National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan Sunday asked Western powers to show respect for Iran and its great influence in the region.
The Indian official also asked the West not to exclude India in the search for a negotiated solution of the Iran-West nuclear standoff.
"We have capabilities and capacities. We believe that we understand better," Narayanan said at an international seminar that was also attended by former US ambassador to India Robert Blackwill.
"Iran is a big country and you need to deal with them diplomatically and with erudition," he said. Being a neighbor with a large Shiite population, "any mishandling", Narayanan stressed, will impact negatively on India.
India had also said on Saturday that military action or sanctions against Iran would exacerbate the situation and that it favored a solution which involves Tehran.
"Sanctions or military action - none of them is a lasting solution and will only exacerbate the situation. We need to evolve something that involves Iran," Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said in an interactive session at the India Global Forum in New Delhi.
Menon said India has made its stand quite clear that while Iran may have the right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy it also has an obligation to various international commitments it undertook.
"Ultimately it is an issue of whether or not it is implementing the obligations it undertook. It depends on technical assessments which are best done by the IAEA," he said.
Stressing on the need to change the world looks at non-proliferation, Menon favored new international consensus on the issue.
"We need to have in place a system to which Iran is a party," he said adding sanctions and military action will only "exacerbate" the situation.
The United States and its Western allies have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative document to substantiate their allegations. Iran has denied the charges and insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Following heavy and continued pressures by the United States, the UN Security Council imposed three rounds of sanctions on Iran for refusing the Council's demand to give up its right of uranium enrichment, a process needed for producing fuel for Iran's under-construction power plants.
The US is at loggerheads with Iran over the independent and home-grown nature of Tehran's nuclear technology, which gives the Islamic Republic the potential to turn into a world power and a role model for other third-world countries. Washington has laid much pressure on Iran to make it give up the most sensitive and advanced part of the technology, which is uranium enrichment, a process used for producing nuclear fuel for power plants.
Iran says it will only negotiate with the UN nuclear watchdog.
Washington's push for additional UN penalties contradicted the recent report by 16 US intelligence bodies that endorsed the civilian nature of Iran's programs. Following the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) and similar reports by the IAEA head - one in November and the other one in February - which praised Iran's truthfulness about key aspects of its past nuclear activities and announced settlement of outstanding issues with Tehran, any effort to impose further sanctions on Iran seemed to be completely irrational.
The February report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, praised Iran's cooperation in clearing up all of the past questions over its nuclear program, vindicating Iran's nuclear program and leaving no justification for any new UN sanctions.
Tehran says it never worked on atomic weapons and wants to enrich uranium merely for civilian purposes, including generation of electricity, a claim substantiated by the NIE and IAEA reports.
Iran has insisted it would continue enriching uranium because it needs to provide fuel to a 300-megawatt light-water reactor it is building in the southwestern town of Darkhoveyn as well as its first nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr.
Meantime, the IAEA affirmed it has adequate knowledge of Iran's nuclear program, despite allegations that Tehran engages in clandestine activities.
The UN nuclear watchdog is well informed on the current situation in Iran, International Atomic Energy Agency Chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in Berlin on Thursday.
ElBaradei noted that Iran has only 3,000 to 3,400 installed centrifuges, stressing the need to continue dialogue to resolve Tehran's nuclear standoff with the West.
The Islamic Republic insists that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, it is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
US President George W. Bush's attempt to rally international pressure against Iran has lost steam due to the growing international vigilance, specially following the latest IAEA and US intelligence reports.
Bush finished a tour of the Middle East in winter to gain the consensus of his Arab allies to unite against Iran.
But hosting officials of the regional nations dismissed Bush's allegations, describing Tehran as a good friend of their countries. And now the same thing is happening in the other world countries and the US president seems to be obliged to witness other countries' growing defiance of Washington's calls for confrontation with Iran.
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