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'Washington Should Join India And Iran In Axis Of Friendship'

Our Political Bureau

by Stanley A. Weiss

NEW DELHI, February 10: The strategic partnership unveiled by India and Iran during President Mohammed Khatami's recent visit here may well be a foundation for a stable Asia for decades to come.

According to Stanley A Weiss, who heads Business Executives for National Security (Bens), a business-funded non-governmental organisation (NGO) interested in security issues in the US, "Iran has the world's second largest natural gas reserves. India is one of the world's largest gas importers and values Iran's strategic location as a gateway to Middle East and Central Asian energy suppliers. They thus complement each other in terms of economic needs".

Militarily, he pointed out, both sides fear that Islamic fundamentalists might seize Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. India now will get access to Iranian military bases in the event of war with Pakistan while Iran will get access to advanced Indian military technology.

He noted that President George W Bush had termed Washington's unprecedented post-Sept 11 ties with India as 'an important relationship'. But he sees Iran, the world's only modern theocracy, as part of an 'axis of evil'.

Mr Weiss recalled an anonymous US official's warning that the New Delhi-Tehran alliance could raise obstacles in his country's burgeoning defence ties with India. But according to Mr Weiss, President Bush should not allow his loathing for Tehran's reactionary mullahs to trump America's need for India or the need to embrace what he calls 'the Iranian people's hope for freedom'. He added that Mr Bush should recognise that India and Iran are the key to regional stability and join New Delhi and Tehran in an 'axis of friendship'.

And although the dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir attracts global headlines, the primary long-term security concern here was a militarily and economically ascendant China, which occupied a chunk of Indian territory, Mr Weiss said.

Mr Weiss suggested that secular India, a multi-religious society and home to the world's second largest Muslim population, should be supported. India's 150 million Muslims, including the world's largest community of Shiites outside Iran, instinctively recoil from Sunni-dominated Al Qaeda. Both India and Iran fear the Saudi-sponsored puritanical Wahhabi brand of Sunni Islam. The two countries have played a vital role in creating and sustaining the US-backed government in Kabul.