By IANS,
Washington : Even as the US is engaged in gathering support for sanctions against Iran, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told President Barack Obama that while India did not favour Iran’s nuclear weapon ambitions, sanctions only hurt the poor.
Manmohan Singh said he had told Obama “we do not favour Iran’s nuclear weapon ambitions. I also said to him that as a signatory of NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) Iran is entitled to all the rights of members who have signed the treaty regarding to the peaceful use of atomic energy.”
But “on the issue of sanctions I said to him (Obama) as far as we are concerned we don’t think sanctions really achieve their objective,” he told reporters Tuesday on the conclusion of the nuclear security summit where Obama tried to win support for sanctions against Iran for its alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“Very often the poor in the affected country suffer more,” Manmohan Sing said pointing out, “As far as the ruling establishment is concerned, they are not really affected by these sanctions in any meaningful way.”
Asked if like President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, where he is going Wednesday, he too planned to visit Tehran, Manmohan Singh said India has good relations with Iran, but he would not be able to make a visit at short notice.
“India has good relations with Iran. Iran is our neighbour and as far as going to Tehran is concerned I have no plans. In any case I cannot make plans to travel at short notice and I have commitments in India,” he said.
But India will be represented at a two-day nuclear disarmament conference next week hosted by Iran next week close on the heels of Obama’s nuclear security summit here.
Iran, which is at loggerheads with the United States, was not invited to the summit along with North Korea, Syria and Belarus.
Lula, who has scheduled a two-day visit to Tehran on May 15, is reported to have said the Iraq war stemmed from a “lie” spread by world powers.