Tuesday, November 15 2005 15:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Congress yesterday (Nov 14, 2005) night sought to downplay growing pressure from its allies the Left and like-minded parties to reverse (UPA) Government's stand on Iran's nuclear programme saying it was not a 'threat'.

"I don't view it as a threat. The UPA coalition is a joint endeavor to keep communal forces at bay and provide socio-economic opportunities to the downtrodden.We have sorted out such things earlier through discussion and see no reason why it can't be done so now," Congress general secretary Ambika Soni said here.

She said this when asked to comment on the strident criticism by Left parties and Samajwadi Party at a joint rally in Lucknow of the Manmohan Singh Government on its voting with the US and European Union on a resolution on Iran's nuclear programme at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in September.

Communist Party of India (CPI) Marxist (M) general secretary Prakash Karat had threatened to put the Government in the dock in the winter session of Parliament, beginning on November 23, if the government did not reverse its stand when the Iran nuclear issue again comes up at the next meeting of IAEA on November 24.

Soni said, "Congress was aware of the public perception and traditional friendship with the non-aligned world and was confident that the Manmohan Singh Government would keep all this in mind and keep the interests of India above everything else" in deciding its stand on Iran nuclear issue.

Karat had said the Indian Government must spell out if it was with the US or the non-aligned world on the Iran issue.