Ackerman

Washington, June 26: The Indo-US nuclear deal will not have a free passage in the US Congress when it comes back here even if the UPA and the Left parties resolve their differences over the Hyde Act and the so-called 123 Agreement.

This became clear on Capitol Hill yesterday during a hearing on the “future of Indo-US relations” in the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee on the Middle East and South Asia.

Gary Ackerman, the chairman of the sub-committee, told the hearing that “I have a very difficult time understanding why the Government of India continues to pursue a pipeline with Iran and Pakistan at a time when other nations in the world are not just implementing UN approved sanctions, which is India’s historic position, but are going further by cutting off access to banking services and discouraging other economic interactions with Iran.”

In remarks clearly meant to be heard and noticed in New Delhi, Ackerman added: “I hope that India’s officials will hear and understand the US view of Iran: that Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and regional hegemony is a serious threat posed to international peace and stability in the Middle East and the vital national security interests of the US.”

That Ackerman has chosen to touch on Indo-Iranian ties, a politically volatile issue in UPA-Left relations, only a few days before he leaves for New Delhi is a clear signal that he intends to tell India’s leadership — behind closed doors, of course — that the Manmohan Singh government will have to pay a price if it returns to Capitol Hill for the next stage in the implementation of the nuclear deal.

Ackerman warned that “continued pursuit” of the India-Pakistan-Iran “pipeline or other investments in Iran’s energy sector as was hinted a few weeks ago by unnamed officials at India’s state-run Oil and Natural Gas Commission will halt and potentially even roll back the progress made in bilateral (Indo-US) relations over the last several years.”

Ackerman’s demand that India should show greater sensitivity towards Washington’s Iran policy is the strongest comment here on Indo-Iranian relations since Tom Lantos, the late chairman of what was then the House of Representatives International Relations Committee, launched a broadside in September 2005 against Natwar Singh, the then external affairs minister, by calling him “dense”.

Lantos said Natwar Singh’s visit to Iran then and his statements in Tehran were “literally sickening, this Stalinist rhetoric which we don’t accept from the Indian foreign minister”.

Ackerman’s warning yesterday was similar to a threat by Lantos in 2005 that Indo-US relations would “go down the tubes” if New Delhi did not change its Iran policy.

Ackerman is one of India’s long-standing and best friends in the US and he is a strong supporter of the nuclear deal.

When someone like him demands that India offer a quid pro quo on Iran or face a “cut off (in) our burgeoning (Indo-US) relationship”, it is an indication that ratification of the 123 Agreement will not be easy in the present US Congress and in the twilight months of the Bush administration.

India will have to have its answers on Iran ready for Ackerman when he arrives in New Delhi in a few days because what he said on Capitol Hill yesterday is only the tip of an iceberg.

Ackerman is a key sponsor of a new resolution in the House of Representatives, already co-sponsored by more than 200 Congressmen, which calls for what amounts to a virtual air, sea and naval blockade of Iran.

There is intense worry here that Ackerman’s resolution is a prelude to re-enacting a 2008 version of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, misrepresented by the US in 1964, for largescale military involvement in Vietnam.

That would enable elements in the Bush administration which want a military conflict with Iran this year and leave a fait accompli for the next US President.

What Ackerman is, in effect, asking India is whether the Manmohan Singh government is “with us or against us” on Iran, hinting clearly that the nuclear deal may be the prize of what India decides to do with Tehran in the coming months.