Tuesday, November 22 2005 11:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Hoping that Iran would live up to its obligations and commitments on the nuclear issue, India has said it will act on the merits of the case if the issue comes up for vote at the International Atomic Energy Agency this week.

India's Ambassador to the United States Ronen Sen also rejected the notion in some quarters that his country's stance on Iran was a 'deviation' from the Non Aligned position.

Expressing hope that the Iran issue will not come up for vote at the IAEA this Thursday, Sen told sources, "the path of negotiation which is currently on will hopefully lead to a general dialogue and that Iran will live up to its obligations and commitments but if we find that this vote becomes inevitable we will act on the merits of the case and in terms of our interests".

The top Indian envoy also brushed aside the argument in some political quarters in India that the country's position on this issue at the IAEA was somehow a 'deviation' from the Non Aligned stance.

"As far as the deviation or adherence to the non aligned position on this issue at the IAEA, I would like to point out that there has not been a non-aligned position on these issues. And in any case on issues relating to non proliferation, India's own stance has been widely divergent from that of the vast majority of non-aligned countries—in fact virtually all other non aligned countries, barring one or two", Sen maintained.

There has been uncertainty on whether or not the IAEA vote on Iran will take place on November 24 due to a flurry of last minute proposals from Russia and the European Union that have lent credentials to all kinds of scenarios coming out of Vienna other than referring Teheran to the UNSC.

A senior administration official said, "all kinds of very high level politicking is going on" even while being sharply critical of the role of Teheran.

"I think there needs to be some action by the Iranians because they have dug themselves in such a deep hole. They (Iran) have been their worst enemies. They are so militant and so confrontational that they are forcing people who would have been willing to cut them some slack", the official said.