US to impose Sanctions on two Indian firms

Washington, July 29 (UNI) The Bush administration will impose sanctions on two Indian firms for selling missile parts to Iran, about which New Delhi is yet to be informed, says the Washington Post quoting government officials.

The daily said officials privately acknowledged that the ''secret decision'' should have been shared with the House of Representatives before it voted this week to support US plans to sell nuclear technology to New Delhi.

New Delhi has not yet been told about the sanctions decision because the issue is highly sensitive for Bush administration negotiators who are still working with India on the civil nuclear deal, according to an unnamed official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the Post said.

US officials declined to identify the two Indian companies which sold sensitive technology to Iran, but said both worked with missile-related technologies, the Post said.

Indian embassy officials yesterday declined to comment saying they had seen media reports about the sanctions, but had no details.

US officials said they briefed selected lawmakers on the impending sanctions. But Democratic lawmakers, led by Rep Edward Markey of Massachusetts, accused the White House of deliberately concealing the information until the House voted Wednesday overwhelmingly in favour of the US plan to supply to India, for the first time, the sensitive nuclear technologies.

The Senate has not scheduled a vote on guidelines for the US-India deal.

This is not the first time Indian companies have been sanctioned for aiding Iran's suspected weapons programmes. Bush administration officials have been quoted as saying that Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon are using Iranian-made rockets against Israeli civilians, leading some Democrats to question whether Indian companies may be involved in manufacturing the rockets.

It was the timing of the sanctions, not revealed before the vote, and being imposed during fighting between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia, eliciting angry responses from Democrats and arms-control experts, the Post said.

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