Iran directive to India is no big deal: US

 The United States on Wednesday remained unrepentant and unapologetic over its suggestion that India should ask Iran to stop its nuclear programme, during the upcoming visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to New Delhi.
 
State Department spokesman Tom Casey had said that India should ask Ahmadinejad to accede to the requirements that the United Nations Security Council and the international community has placed on Teheran, vis-à-vis suspending its uranium enrichment programme

India had reacted angrily to the US suggestion, saying it does not need guidance on how to conduct its bilateral affairs.
 
A spokesperson for the External Affairs Ministry had said that both India and Iran "are perfectly capable of managing all aspects of their relationship with the appropriate degree of care and attention. Neither country needs any guidance on the future conduct of bilateral relations."
 
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee also called on the US to leave the issue of Iran's nuclear programme to the International Atomic Energy Agency and not take up the responsibility of deciding Iran's position.
 
"Iran should convince the IAEA that their nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. We are advising Iran that being a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, you should satisfy the IAEA. US should not take up the responsibility to decide Iran's position," Mukherjee had said.
 
But Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher on Wednesday defended Casey's suggestion. He dismissed India's angry reaction, saying it was not a big deal.
 
At a briefing with journalists at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, Boucher, who was the longest serving State Department spokesman, said that Casey had been 'pretty subtle' in the advise he had doled out to India.

"First of all, I think many of you might have been at Tom Casey's briefing, and it was pretty subtle, if you ask me. It was a lot subtler than I used to do it when I was over there. So I don't think he was in any way pointing the finger at India," he said.
 
Boucher acknowledged, "I do understand that people want to make their own policy and decide their own choices—I have no problem with that. (But) I don't think this is that big an issue—that big a disagreement between us—frankly."
 
 "We do talk to India about Iran, as we talk to them about everything in the region and further afield. We've actually even proposed we have more systematic exchanges on a variety of areas of the world," he said.
 
Boucher argued, "I think our policies, as Casey expressed them, are very well-known to the world, and India knows what they are as well. I think we also know that India has made very clear, Prime Minister (Manmohan) Singh has made very clear, they don't want to see another nuclear-weapon state in their region."
 
Thus, he added, "Now, all those things are well know to us, so I think substantively it is probably less of a problem."
 
"But they'll have a visit and we'll see what comes out of it," Boucher said.