India on Thursday said Iran should fully cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with a view to restoring confidence of the international community that its nuclear programme is peaceful in nature.
India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri said India has ‘consistently supported’ the right of all nations to peaceful uses of nuclear energy in accordance with relevant international treaties to which they are a party.
"Iran should fully cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency to restore the confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear programme," Puri said participating in a UN Security Council briefing here on Iran and UN Resolution 1737, which had imposed sanctions against Tehran for failing to stop its uranium enrichment programme.
Puri said India welcomes the recent exchanges between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog, expressing hope that the outstanding technical issues concerning the Iranian nuclear programme will be resolved peacefully through Tehran's cooperation with the IAEA. India also welcomes the decision to resume talks between Iran and the P5 + 1 nations - UNSC's five permanent members and Germany.
"These talks should serve as an important confidence building measure and help avoid escalation of the situation," Puri said.
Puri further added that India supports the full implementation of relevant resolutions of the Security Council concerning the Iranian nuclear issue.
He, however, said while implementing these resolutions, it is necessary that all efforts should be made so that legitimate trade and economic activities do not suffer.
India extended support for an open briefing next month for interested member-states on the implementation procedures. Puri said India is ‘carefully studying’ the reports of the panel of experts on the implementation of the resolution by the member states.
The panel is mandated to assist the 1737 Committee in the implementation of the relevant resolution. He said three members of the panel had visited India in January this year and had a useful exchange of views with the concerned authorities in New Delhi.
The UNSC had imposed sanctions against Iran through its resolution 1737 passed in 2006. The resolution had blocked import or export of sensitive nuclear material and equipment and froze financial assets of persons or entities supporting Iran's proliferation sensitive nuclear activities or the development of nuclear-weapon delivery systems.