Shashi Tharoor defends voting against Iran in IAEA

MoS External Affairs Shashi Tharoor reiterated that India's stand on Iran's nuclear weapons prog has remained consistent.

Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor on Saturday said that India’s stand on Iran has remained consistent and the decision on Iran has been taken keeping in mind that they are a signatory of the non-proliferation treaty.

He was responding to a question that India has toed America’s line over the Irans nuclear programme in an interview to a news channel he said: An inkling of India’s position at the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) was given by Prime Minster Manmohan Singh during his just concluded US visit,where he clarified that India does not support Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions.

As known for many years,we were accused of cowing-towing to the Soviet Union when there was a Soviet Union – so this business of accusing people of cow-towing is very much in the eye of the beholder or in the tongue of the critic, he said.

From our point of view we are taking a responsible decision on the basis of our judgement on what is in our sovereign national interest. In some cases that might be a decision that will please a certain capital,or displease another capital – but ultimately the only capital we are concerned about is New Delhi. And our concern here is,how we do the right thing by the people of India, Tharoor added.

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