CPI(M) raps UPA for `succumbing` to US pressure on Iran

New Delhi: CPI(M) on Thursday attacked the UPA government for "succumbing to US pressure" on Iran over the nuclear issue as Washington itself and other P-5 nations had reached a settlement with it at Geneva earlier this week. Noting that the agreement between Iran and six powerful nations represented a diplomatic breakthrough, the party said it would also be beneficial to India. However, the UPA government had earlier "acted against India`s own interests when it succumbed to US pressure and voted against Iran in the IAEA in September 2005 which enabled the matter to be taken up at the UN Security Council. The UPA government went back on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project," senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said. In an editorial in party organ `People`s Democracy`, he said the government also "caved in to the US pressure of sanctions and India`s oil import from Iran was halved. Till 2011, Iran had been the second biggest supplier of oil to India." "Now with the United States moving for a rapprochement with Iran, India can only rue its shortsighted and craven stance," Yechury said. The agreement was arrived at between Iran on one side and UN Security Council`s permanent members -- US, Russia, China, France and Britain -- besides Germany. He said the US came to an understanding realising the "dangerous implications of the whole region getting destablised in the wake of the Syrian conflict. "With the imminent withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, it has to reckon with the role Iran can play as a regional player in stabilising the situation in Afghanistan," Yechury added.