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| | The United States has told India and other leading members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) that enlisting their support to deny Iran nuclear weapons holds a high priority for Washington. "This has been a high priority for us in our relations with Brazil, India, South Africa, Indonesia, Egypt-just to name five leading members of the non-aligned movement," Under Secretary of State Nick Burns told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The US had told them, "Look, we're not trying to deny Iran - Iranian people - a civil nuclear power because under the non-proliferation treaty all countries have that right, but we are trying to deny them nuclear weapons." "And there's a big distinction; and we get to keep the two separate; and we had a lot of success," added Burns during a panel hearing on Iran Thursday. Only what he called "the gang of five" - Syria, Belarus, Sudan, Venezuela and Cuba - are actually speaking up on behalf of Iran, Burns said, "And that's a pretty notorious group of countries." "Everyone else, including ...some of the non-aligned leaders - India Brazil, Egypt, Argentina, South Africa, Indonesia - are now all on record supporting sanctions against Iran, tough sanctions," he said, noting that India and Brazil have now enacted sanctions legislation against Iran because of their UN obligations. "So I know that sometimes people get frustrated with multi-lateral diplomacy, but when you pull everything together, you have this very powerful multiplier effect of every big country in the world speaking - signing off the same sheet, saying, 'The Iranians shouldn't develop nuclear weapons, and we're all going to act together to prevent that.'" On another front, Burns said after 25 years of holding each other at arm's length, the United States is seeking to engage the people of Iran in direct exchanges with the hope of building stronger ties and greater understanding between Iranians and Americans, Burns said. "We have no relationship with them; we have no embassy there; we have very few American businesses there, very few American journalists. There literally has been no contact between our countries," he said. "And so while we are opposed to the Iranian regime, we ought to be open to increased contacts with the Iranian people," Burns said outlining several programmes the State Department has undertaken over the past year to reach out to the Iranian people. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Joseph Biden urged the administration to carry its initiatives further and allow more US nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) to operate in Iran. Currently, all US entities face strict limitations on their activities in Iran due to economic sanctions that the United States has imposed on the Iranian government over the past 25 years. The committee's ranking Republican member, Richard Lugar, called for a "full-court press" by the United States to promote people-to-people exchanges. "I think there is certainly evidence that as Americans who have been innovative have attempted to get to know the Iranians better and have been going into the country and so forth, there have been productive results," he said. He called it "critically important that we get to know Iran better." Burns said the administration would like to see more US NGOs working in Iran, but he cautioned that direct links between US organisations and civil society groups in Iran could be politically harmful to those groups. In addition to promoting citizen exchanges, the State Department is building its capacity to understand Iran, he said. Burns also noted that some members of Congress have sought to establish relations on a personal level with the Iranian parliament, and he welcomed those efforts. |
