"We think we are far better off bringing India into the non- proliferation system... India is seeking inclusion; Iran is seeking exclusion," Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said last week while testifying before the International Relations Committee of the House of Representatives.
The U.S. President George W. Bush flied to India earlier this month to reach what he described as “historic deal” with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan- a deal that would bring New Delhi into the club of nuclear nations (necessary as it is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty), making nuclear commerce between the two countries possible, as well as creating a genuine alliance between America and India which will help securing U.S. interests.
Bush insists that India shouldn’t be compared with Iran in the nuclear sphere.
Burns, seeking to allay Congressmen fear over the Bush -India nuclear deal, which gives India access to long denied nuclear technology and fuel in return for placing a majority of its civilian nuclear reactors under international safeguards, said that unlike "autocratic" Iran, India doesn’t reject the UN atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"Iran is autocratic and adversarial and one of the greatest threats to the world today. India ... Is ready to bring the IAEA in for the first time to place safeguards on a great majority of Indian facilities. The Iranians are trying to kick the IAEA out," Burns said.
"So these two countries are going in opposite directions, both in our relationship and with that of the IAEA," he claimed.
"(French) President (Jacques) Chirac, (British) Prime Minister (Tony) Blair, (Australian) Prime Minister (John) Howard and (IAEA chief Mohammed) ElBaradei have all expressed support of the (U.S.) president's initiative with India," Burns boasted.
On the other hand, the American President has been lobbying international support to his efforts to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council, claiming it was using its civilian nuclear program as a guise to hidden preparations to make nuclear weapons. And despite the many assurances the Islamic republic presented to allay international concerns over its nuclear activities and despite the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors had never found any evidence to prove the American claims, backed by Israel and the European Union, Tehran is now very close to be referred to the UNSC for refusing to give up its right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to pursue nuclear technology as long as it’s being used for peaceful purposes. Bush's were successful.
The Bush administration, which had always disavowed U.S. nuclear disarmament commitments under the Treaty, does not seem to grasp the hypocrisy of exerting pressure on other countries to give up their right to purse nuclear technology, while it fails to fulfill its own obligations under the disarmament provisions of the NPT.
The NPT, as described on Counter Punch, is crumbling under the double standards of the U.S. high-level nuclear hypocrisy policies and the "do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do" positions of President Bush.
It’s time Americans comprehend their government’s hypocritical nature, even though that would be possible, knowing the Bush administration’s talent in spinning the news to suit its militarist worldviews.
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