Left wants India to abstain during IAEA vote on Iran

The Left parties Thursday asked the government to abstain from a possible voting on Iran's nuclear programme at the International Atomic Energy Agency's meeting in November to express solidarity with Teheran's sovereignty.

• The Iran vote and after

The Left, the Janata Dal-Secular and the Samajwadi Party also condemned India's support to the United States-backed European Union-3 resolution setting up a possible referral of the Iran question to the United Nations Security Council, Communist Party-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechuri told reporters after a meeting between the three groups in New Delhi.

"That stand was a diversion from the country's foreign policy. And we condemn it," Yechuri said as he announced to hold a series of public conventions to highlight the United Progressive Alliance government's "deviations" on the foreign policy vis-a-vis Iran ahead of the November meeting.

"We want that India should abstain from the (expected) voting as a mark of support to Iran's sovereignty and its independent foreign policy," he added. The CPM leader also accused the Western powers of having created the same pretext to attack Iraq.