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India must help contain Iran, says amended US Bill 
Ashish Kumar Sen writes from Washington

The House International Relations Committee (HIRC) on Tuesday commenced a “markup” hearing on House Resolution (HR) 5682, a modified version of HR 4794 that seeks to exempt from certain requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 a proposed nuclear agreement for cooperation with India.

The new bill is based upon the Bush administration’s proposal – HR 4794 — but has been amended with several significant changes. The administration’s bill was drafted in a “profoundly unsatisfactory manner,” said HIRC Chairman Congressman Henry Hyde. It would have given the administration sweeping powers, he said, adding, “In effect Congress was being asked to remove itself from the process and abandon its constitutional role.”

A markup refers to the meeting of a congressional committee held to review the text of a bill before reporting it out to the full Senate and House. Committee members offer and vote on proposed changes to the bill's language, known as amendments. Most markups end with a vote to send the new version of the bill to the floor for final approval. Members of the committee had not voted on the bill at the time of going to the press.

In HR-4794, Congress would only be able to make its role felt with “heroic effort,” Mr. Hyde complained. The HR-5682 changes that. The amended bill was introduced by Mr. Hyde, committee co-chairman California Democrat Tom Lantos, Florida Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, New York Democrat Gary Ackerman, Indiana Republican Dan Burton, South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson, American Samoa Delegate Eni Faleomavaega, New York Democrat Eliot Engel, New York Democrat Joseph Crowley, and North Carolina Democrat Bob Etheridge.

The bill includes a provision that the U.S. “secure India's full and active participation in United States efforts to dissuade, isolate, and, if necessary, sanction and contain Iran for its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including a nuclear weapons capability (including the capability to enrich or process nuclear materials), and the means to deliver weapons of mass destruction.”

Diplomatic sources point out that while New Delhi believes Iran must abide by its commitments to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the inclusion of this wording in the bill at the insistence of Mr Lantos would open India to the charge that it is toeing the U.S. line on Iran.

The “statement of policy” section of the bill notes the policies of the U.S. with respect to South Asia will be – to achieve a moratorium on the production of fissile material for nuclear explosive purposes by India, Pakistan, and China at the earliest possible date; achieve the conclusion and implementation of a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons and secure India’s full participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI).

The nuclear deal is dependent on a determination by the U.S. president that India has provided the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency with a “credible plan to separate civil and military nuclear facilities, materials, and programmes, and has filed a declaration regarding its civil facilities with the IAEA; India and the IAEA have concluded an agreement requiring the application of IAEA safeguards in perpetuity in accordance with IAEA standards, principles, and practices; India and the IAEA are making substantial progress toward concluding an Additional Protocol consistent with IAEA principles, practices, and policies that would apply to India's civil nuclear programme; India is working actively with the United States for the early conclusion of a multilateral Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty.”

Under the House committee’s bill nuclear transfers can be terminated if India makes any “materially significant transfer of nuclear or nuclear-related material, equipment, or technology that does not conform to NSG guidelines; ballistic missiles or missile-related equipment or technology that does not conform to MTCR guidelines, unless the president determines that cessation of such exports would be seriously prejudicial to the achievement of United States nonproliferation objectives or otherwise jeopardize the common defense and security.”

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Mr. Lugar and Delaware Democratic Senator Joe Biden, had been scheduled a similar markup of the nuclear bill on June 28. It has now been rescheduled for June 29.