Congman Markey demands report on 2 Indian firms

Washington, July 29: A leading US Democrat from Massachusetts Ed Markey has said that two Indian firms had invited sanctions for helping Iran's missile programme.

''The sanctioning of two Indian firms indicates that India is unable to fully police bad actors in its jurisdiction from helping Iran, which has been arming terrorists like Hizbollah and repeatedly threatening the West Asia and the United States,'' Markey said yesterday in a statement.

He demanded that the Bush administration immediately release the ''long-delayed'' State Department report on how these two Indian firms violated rules to carry on missile-related transactions with Iran.

The Bush administration, is reportedly, contemplating sanctions on these two Indian firms for assisting Iran in its weapons development programs.

When asked for their comments on this, Indian Embassy officials told UNI that they had seen the reports in the media, but had no details or comments on it.

Ed Markey, who failed in his last minute attempt to postpone the vote on the US-India civil nuclear deal, said that the report which is sent by the State Department to the US Congress, was deliberately delayed this time to facilitate the House vote on the US-India civil nuclear deal.

The State Department report on violations of the Iran-Syria Nonproliferation Act chronicles details of all entities that have been sanctioned for not complying with international laws to stop proliferation of nuclear and other weapons. This report is sent to the US Congress every six months and it is stated to contain information on the Indian firms and its activities during the first half of 2005.

Markey said, ''The Bush Administration has once again delayed, obfuscated, and misled this Congress by withholding information about these violations by Indian entities before we voted to grant historic nuclear cooperation with the Indian government. As the world watches Hizbollah terrorists fire Iranian-supplied missiles into Israel each day, Congress needs to hold those that supplied those missiles, and those who are helping them, fully accountable for their actions. Congress should have known about these Indian non-proliferation violations before it paved the way for them to get even more nuclear materials without any controls.''

He said, ''the Bush Administration is so busy giving away nuclear goodies to India, it has forgotten to ensure that a country that the President once called part of an 'Axis of Evil', Iran, isn't then able to turn around and use those weapons against us or our allies in the West Asia,'' Markey concluded.

Two days ago, Markey offered a recommital motion to HR 5682, the ''United States and India Nuclear Cooperation Promotion Act,'' which would have required the President to certify, before any future nuclear cooperation agreement between the US and India goes into effect, that India is fully and actively cooperating with US efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, including acquisition of an uranium enrichment capacity. The Markey amendment was defeated by a vote of 192 to 235.

According to reports, Markey said the two Indian entities have been engaged in exports of sensitive technologies that could assist Iran's efforts to acquire missiles. The sanctions being contemplated by the Bush administration could come in addition to atleast eight non-proliferation sanctions the US has filed against atleast seven Indian companies or persons, including two sanctions in December 2005, Markey said.

UNI