Iran entitled to produce N-energy: India

India throws its weight behind Iran’s civilian nuclear program, highlighting Tehran’s right to develop nuclear energy.

“Well, we have taken a very consistent position. We respect the right of every nation to pursue its nuclear energy ambitions to its logical level,” said Indian Foreign Minister Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna in a press conference in al-Quds (Jerusalem) on Tuesday, quoted by Reuters.

Senior American officials and the israeli regime have repeatedly threatened Tehran with the “option” of a military strike against the Islamic Republic, citing its increasingly self-sufficient nuclear program.

Despite the widely publicized claims by the US, israel and some of their European allies that Iran’s nuclear program may include a military diversion, Iran steadfastly insists on its civilian nature, arguing that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

This is while the israeli regime is widely known to possess over 200 nuclear warheads, a fact that it has never denied, citing its so-called policy of nuclear ambiguity. Furthermore, Tel Aviv refuses to allow its nuclear facilities to come under international regulatory inspectors and rejects signing into any international nuclear regulatory agreements.

The IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities but has never pointed to any evidence indicating that Tehran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production.

Furthermore, US President Barack Obama on December 31, signed into law fresh economic sanctions against Iran’s Central Bank in an apparent bid to punish foreign companies and banks that do business with the Iranian financial institution.

The bill requires foreign financial firms to make a choice between doing business with Iran’s Central Bank and oil sector or with the US financial sector.

Energy experts say the sanctions could lead to a major hike in crude oil prices and disrupt the interests of the US and its allies that depend on oil imports from Iran.