US lawmaker asks India to end ties with Iran

Seeking to link the civilian nuclear deal with the Iran issue, a senior American lawmaker, who is opposed to the Indo-US initiative, has urged New Delhi to break economic and military ties with Tehran.

Democratic Congressman from Massachussetts, Edward Markey, has said that in December 2006 when the US Congress preliminarily approved the agreement, the Congress required India's 'full and active participation' in efforts to end Iran's nuclear weapons programme.

'Instead, India has spent the last year building its relationship with Iran, much to the dismay of US lawmakers,' he said in a statement.

'India continues to cozy up to Iran, a country that has blatantly disregarded international pressure to end its nuclear programme, is undermining our ability to isolate Tehran," Markey said.

'India has a place in the global nonproliferation system, but this deal negotiated by President (George W) Bush was a bad idea from the start,' the lawmaker added.

'As the Indian prime minister has said, the failure of this deal will not derail the US-India relationship. The trade between our countries has grown at an incredible pace, and will continue to do so. The collapse of this deal would be a great thing for nonproliferation at very little cost to the bilateral US-Indian relationship,' Markey said.