Thursday, January 26 2006 15:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Left parties today (Jan 26,2006) demanded the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government come out with a clear statement that India would not favour any Security Council referral of Iran's nuclear programme.

"Two things are immediately required if the Manmohan Singh Government is to restore its credibility in this matter. Firstly, there should be a categorical statement that India will not countenance a reference to the UN Security Council on the Iran nuclear issue," the Communist Party of India (CPI) Marxist (M) said in a statement reacting to US Ambassador David C Mulford's comments on the Iran issue.

"Secondly, the UPA Government should make public all the details of the proposals for nuclear cooperation and separation of civilian and nuclear facilities, which have been submitted to the United States," it said.

Just a week ahead of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting on the Iran issue,Mulford told sources in an interview yesterday (Jan 25,2006) that if India did not vote against Tehran's nuclear programme, the fallout on the Indo-US nuclear deal in the Congress would be 'devastating.'

In its strongly-worded statement, the CPI(M) called the Ambassador's comments a "threat" and said they confirmed the US had pressurised India to vote against Iran at the IAEA meeting in September last year.

"The threat issued by the US Ambassador that unless India votes against Iran in the IAEA, the nuclear cooperation deal will not be approved by the US Congress is a serious affront to India and its sovereignty," it said.

In a separate statement, the CPI accused the US Ambassador of interference with India's sovereign affairs and said the UPA Government was required to send out a clear message about India's independent foreign policy.

"A strong rebuff should be given so that the message rings out clearly that India has its dignity and independent foreign policy," the CPI said.

The Left party also accused Mulford of trying to dictate terms to India.

"It is an attempt to dictate what India should do. Mr Mulford forgets that he is not the American pro-consul in a banana republic," the CPI said.