The Bush administration has said that it is India's prerogative to maintain close ties with Iran even as the United States prepares sanctions against Tehran in the United Nations for its refusal to cease its uranium enrichment and hopes India will continue to support Washington's efforts to isolate Iran as it did during the International Atomic Energy Agency meetings in September 2005 and February 2006.
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, during an interaction with members of the Indian-American community at a Congressional reception for members of the US Senate to garner their support for the US-India nuclear deal, said he did not believe ties between Washington and New Delhi would be adversely impacted if India maintained close ties with Tehran, even though Congressional leaders have warned that it could jeapordise relations and even kill the nuclear deal.
"India is a major power with global interests," Burns said. "It will make its own decisions. It doesn't need
any country to tell it what to do."
However, he pointed out that "the Indian government was extremely courageous twice in the IAEA -- in September 2005 and February 2006 -- voting with the majority, with Russia and China, and with Brazil and Egypt as well as the United States to say that Iran is not meeting its international obligations."
Burns argued that "it was India's leadership among the non-aligned countries that led to this very strong international movement to try to pressure the Iranian government to give up its nuclear weapons capability."
He acknowledged that "we are at a critical point now. We believe that if Iran cannot accept these conditions in the next few days, then you'll see a major effort by the United States to push a sanctions regime at the United Nations."
Burns said that he's had "conversations with the P-5 yesterday and today about these sanctions," and while "we have not fully agreed on them, we are discussing them and the Iranians should know that."