WASHINGTON: America's renowned " Jewish lobby" has turned the spotlight on India over its continuing ties with Iran. Pressure from supporters of Israel comes even as US lawmakers, administration officials and editorial pundits are giving New Delhi a hard time over what India insists is a relationship based on energy exigencies and tied to the situation in Afghanistan.
Maintaining that it has been "India's long-time friend and an advocate of increasingly close cooperation between Washington and New Delhi," the powerful American Jewish Committee told India's ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao in a letter last week that it was "deeply troubled" by recent reports of India's efforts to intensify trade relations with Iran "at the very moment when the US and fellow democracies are applying new economic pressures to persuade Tehran to halt its nuclear programme".
The letter took particular exception to the announcement made by commerce secretary Rahul Khullar this week that "a huge delegation" of Indian business representatives would soon travel to Iran to capitalize on opportunities created by European withdrawal from the Iranian market.
"This suggests that New Delhi is attempting to take advantage of sanctions adopted by like-minded nations for the explicit purpose of preventing nuclear proliferation by a dangerously aggressive regime - and which could, in turn, trigger an escalating arms race - in a highly volatile region," the letter said. It expressed alarm and dismay at "this apparent move to elevate commercial interests over vital security concerns".
The letter was written before Monday's blast targetting Israeli embassy staff in Delhi, but after a three-day visit to Washington by India's foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai, who during his trip tried to explain India's stand on continued trade with Iran to a skeptical US audience. The Iran question surfaced at almost every meeting Mathai had with US administration officials and lawmakers.
New Delhi's explanation that it is an energy starved country that has to perforce buy supplies from the most logical and economical source did not make much of an impression. Lawmakers pointed to Japan and South Korea as examples that had, in effect, toed the US line while administration mandarins offered to mitigate the situation by suggesting alternate supply possibilities. India's pledge that supplies from Iran were already down to less than 10% also did not impress players in Washington determined to collar Tehran.
For a change though, New Delhi did not employ its usual rhetoric of "civilizational ties" with Iran. Instead, Indian officials tried to explain to the Americans that peeling India off from Iran and isolating Tehran will make things more difficult for India and the US in Afghanistan. But the US is already playing footsie with the Taliban in its effort to extricate itself from Afghanistan making things very difficult for New Delhi.
Much of India's refining capacity is also premised on sourcing oil from Iran and shifting the supply to other sources brings its own logistical problems, one official explained. While serving officials have been circumspect in explaining India's constraints to the US, former diplomats have made no secret of their disdain for the US's conflicting policies in the region.
