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US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
presented a rosy picture of the
Indo-US civilian nuclear deal to the
US Senate Foreign Relations Committee
but faced harsh words on Indian
relations with
Iran
and unfair comparisons with
North Korea. Rice emphasized that “it is not
credible” to compare India with Iran
and North Korea and argued that US
cannot restrain India on the
Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline or
even guarantee that the pipeline will
go away with the nuclear deal.
Rice
said, “
India
is not the only country having oil
relationship with
Iran
. Some of our closest allies have oil
and gas relationship with
Iran
. Among the Europeans,
Italy
is
Iran
’s largest trading partner.”
US
Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas
Burns acknowledged that it was “controversial”
because it was “unorthodox” but rejected the
notion that the deal will somehow lead to an arms
race. He said that “there is no reason why
India
should seek to use this opportunity to double or
triple its strategic program” since
India
wanted “safe relations” with
China
and
Pakistan.
Meanwhile,
Chief Executive Officers of many
US
corporations have thrown their weight behind the deal
and asked their representatives to support it.
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