India Goes to Iran

by CKR

The Indian Foreign Minister has been in Iran to talk about nuclear and other issues. Pranab Mukherjee spoke with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Foreign Minister Manaouchehr Mottaki, and Ali Larijani, who has been Iran’s primary international nuclear negotiator. The visit was partly in preparation for an upcoming visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Iran.

Mottaki publicly said nothing new with respect to his country’s nuclear energy program. He was noncommittal about the progress, or lack thereof, on installing centrifuges. The requirement for Iran to stop enrichment before talks with the United States can begin is still unacceptable. Mukherjee said “We believe that the Iranian nuclear problem should be resolved peacefully and through negotiations,” as he said before the trip. He also encouraged Iran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors. Iran has recently barred 38 of those inspectors from its nuclear facilities.

The Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006 (pdf), the recently-enacted law that makes exception for nuclear trade with non-NPT member India, says that

The following shall be the policies of the United States with respect to South Asia:…. (4) Secure India’s full and active participation in United States efforts to dissuade, isolate, and, if necessary, sanction and contain Iran for its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including a nuclear weapons capability and the capability to enrich uranium or reprocess nuclear fuel, and the means to deliver weapons of mass destruction.

India has not been notably forthcoming about putting its reactors under IAEA safeguards; they propose a small increase, very small. So perhaps the Indian government sees having talks with Iran as a way to appear to be offering its good will in the runup to full nuclear cooperation outside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even though some in their country have loudly denounced this provision as unwarranted interference in Indian foreign policy.

Siddarth Varadarajan, deputy editor of The Hindu, sees the Foreign Minister’s trip as helping to reconstitute a strong role for India in the region. Many of Varadarajan’s suggestions are constructive and could strengthen a perception of India as a responsible state having nuclear weapons. In a later report, Varadarajan, relying on anonymous Indian sources, says that Ali Larijani made three points:

First, that Iran had no intention of developing nuclear weapons and that its nuclear programme was entirely peaceful.

Second, that Iran was prepared to clear all outstanding questions the IAEA had on its nuclear programme. Third, that Iran would never accept a dialogue that was based on pre-conditions.

It’s the second that may offer something new. Muhammed ElBaradei should test this opening.

Mukherjee and Mottaki also discussed the proposed gas pipeline to India through Pakistan. The three countries have been arguing about the pricing of the gas. The United States has expressed concern to India about buying gas from Iran at any price, part of its attempt to cut Iran off economically, but India needs energy. That’s what the nuclear deal with the US is (partly) about.

Larijani said he expects to be active at a security conference in Munich over the weekend.