‘We hope India has independent foreign policy’

Visiting Iranain foreign minister feels encouraged by the left

NEW DELHI: Taking  the cue from the Left parties, critical of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s pro-American tilt, visiting Iranian interior minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi said on Thursday that Iran hoped India will continue to maintain its independent foreign policy “as before’’ and not allow “external elements ‘’ to affect its ties with the rest of the world.

Iran is aware of the criticism by the Left on the Indo-US nuclear agreement and the domestic fallout of the 123 agreement. The Left parties had sharply attacked the Prime Minister when New Delhi voted at the IAEA with Washington to refer Tehran to the UN Security Council, for its failure to abide by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which it had signed. Tehran had noted with appreciation support from unexpected quarters. However the minister refused to comment on India’s nuclear deal, “It is an internal issue of India,” but added, “We would like to see India maintain its foreign policy as before.” He implied that India’s growing closeness to the US, has triggered speculation of New Delhi moving into the US orbit.

Mohammadi is here to attend a two-day meeting of disaster risk management, which ended on Thursday. He met Singh and foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee. He also said that “The PM has accepted the invite and we expect that the visit happens at the earliest possible opportunity.” He also hoped that India and Iran will be able to  resolve the “technical problems” in implementation of the controversial Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project. Washington has already warned India and Pakistan about the trilateral gas pipeline, but for the moment neither Islamabad nor New Delhi is paying much heed.