The government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea also declared its total freedom from the binding force of the safeguards accord with the International Atomic Energy Agency
The threat came a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted a resolution seeking a complete halt to the enrichment programme and threatened to report Iran to the UN council if it did not.
India on Monday signed a key safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency to allow inspection of additional civilian reactors, clearing the decks for supply of atomic fuel and technology by the international community after a 34-year-old nuke trade embargo was lifted last year.
"Iran is an important neighbouring country on the other side of Pakistan. Iran is a major source of energy. It is the only route to have access to Central Asia and Afghanistan. It is a very important Gulf nation. We cannot undermine our ties with it"
The fuel delivery scheme mainly targets consumers that buy in bulk.
In the first high level contact since New Delhi voted against Tehran at the February 4 International Atomic Energy Agency meeting
Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar on Tuesday expressed optimism about clinching an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and implementation of the Indo-US nuclear deal.
The reliability of US information and assessments on Iran is increasingly at issue as the Bush administration confronts the emerging regional power on multiple fronts.
The United States and the European Union on Friday led the international community in promptly welcoming the International Atomic Energy Agency's approval of India-specific safeguards agreement, saying it will boost non-proliferation efforts and hoped that the Nuclear Suppliers' Group will too give a waiver to New Delhi for nuclear commerce.
The announcement comes three days after the International Atomic Energy Agency demanded that Teheran freeze all operations connected with uranium enrichment or face possible retaliation.
'There is a huge risk of misinformation and disinformation, and targeted campaigns that could potentially happen against candidates or to push certain narratives.'
IAEA chief ElBaradei said participating countries would be required to pledge not to develop dual-use facilities.
The CBI on Monday arrested Videocon group founder Venugopal Dhoot in connection with the ICICI Bank loan fraud case, officials said. The 71-year-old Dhoot was arrested from Mumbai, nearly three days after former CEO and MD of the ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar were taken into custody by the CBI, they said.
"Our aim is to bring the nuclear power plant into production by 2015," Chief of country's Atomic Energy Commission Shafiqul Islam Bhuiyan was quoted as saying by the New Age newspaper on Monday.
"This cooperation can only help strengthen the strategic cooperation between our two countries," the letter signed by the eight lawmakers said.
Ambassador Ronen Sen has said that India's decision has been based on independent assessments.
Iran has threatened to review its economic and political relations with the countries that voted for the referral to UNSC.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sudnay arrived in Tehran on a two-day visit.
Now that the United Progressive Alliance coalition has nine months in office, it must be transparent and accountable to those who pay and elect it to serve the people of India. A single mis-step on the 123 could irreparably damage rather than advance India's national interest
India and the International Atomic Energy Agency will hold negotiations in New Delhi on Saturday on the proposed Safeguards Agreement.
"China's cooperation with Pakistan in nuclear power is for peaceful means and is supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency, (IAEA). The US always questions Pakistan's nuclear activities, but how about its latest nuclear deal with India," Chinese newspaper Global Times quoted He Maochun, director of the Research Centre for Economic Diplomacy Studies of Tsinghua University, as probing.
India hopes to wrap up a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency later this month in Vienna, before approaching the Nuclear Suppliers Group, for changes to permit international nuclear commerce. India needs to reach a safeguards agreement and then get the nod of the 45-member NSG for operationalising the India-United States civil nuclear agreement.
A few years ago, when top officials of Indian state-run refiners went to Dubai to negotiate a crude oil supply contract, a senior official from state-owned Saudi Aramco told them, "We can negotiate on anything, but I am the last man standing for you. "Nobody can offer the range of crudes we do with certainty," an official who was part of the negotiating team recalls. Perhaps that explains why Saudi Arabia is less concerned about losing its place as India's premier oil supplier to an upstart like Russia, which emerged from nowhere to become India's biggest crude oil supplier in September and October.
Anil Kakodkar will also discuss with IAEA representatives an Additional Protocol.
"The request comes a day after Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said they planned to send nuclear centrifuges to the agency for investigation relating to Iran's nuclear programme," Pakistan Foreign office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani was quoted in
In yet another step towards full implementation of the United States-India civilian nuclear deal -- which the Obama administration has been accused in some quarters of not being fully committed to -- US President Barack Obama on Wednesday issued a memorandum certifying the agreement between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency of the Safeguards Agreement on India's civilian nuclear facilities.
Around 15 years ago, when Reliance Industries (RIL) struck natural gas in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin off the east coast, the government made plans to supply that fuel cheaply to scores of generators that sprang up in India triggered by the discovery. Most of the plants, which account for 6 per cent of India's total generation capacity, operate sparsely after the KG-D6 area first failed to meet production targets, and then finally shut shop. Affordable domestic gas was why those thermal plants came up and the rate of the fuel today is why those generators hardly operate. Record liquefied natural gas (LNG) rates may yet again unravel India's ambitions to expand use of gas in industries, households and vehicles. Rates, while volatile, may stay strong this decade as developed nations with higher purchasing power embrace gas as the transition fuel.
Unruffled by global concerns, Beijing and Islamabad are in talks to build a new nuclear reactor in Pakistan of 1 gigawatt capacity, three times more powerful than existing ones, apparently without the approval of the International Atomic Energy Agency or the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Iran has accelerated its nuclear programme and currently possesses sufficient supply of uranium to make three nuclear devices, a United Nations nuclear watchdog report claimed.
Pakistan plans to ask Bush to allow American investors, in line with IAEA safeguards.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday told a special court here that former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar misappropriated the lender's funds for personal use. The probe agency, represented by special public prosecutor A Limosin, made this argument while urging the special court to take cognizance of the chargesheet filed against Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and others in a case pertaining to cheating and irregularities in sanctioning of loans to Videocon Group firms. Chanda Kochhar was MD and CEO of ICICI Bank between May 2009 and January 2019 in which capacity she was entrusted with the Bank's funds, the CBI told court.
India has placed ten of its nuclear reactors for review by the International Atomic Energy Agency as per the safeguard agreement reached with the United Nations monitoring body. "In accordance with the Separation Plan, so far, ten nuclear power reactors have been placed for review under the agreement between the government and the IAEA, for the Application of Safeguards to Civilian Nuclear Facilities signed in February 2009," a minister said.
The Bombay high court on Monday granted bail to former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar in a loan fraud case, saying their arrest was not in accordance with the provisions of law. A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and P K Chavan held that the arrest of Kochhars was in violation of Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which mandates sending notice for appearance before the police officer concerned. The couple was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on December 23, 2022 in connection with the Videocon-ICICI Bank loan case.
One looks upon the coming new year with foreboding as current wars in Ukraine and Gaza spill over and escalate and new ones erupt in incipient fault lines across the world, notes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
This will make Apsara off-limits to the IAEA, once the Indo-US N-deal kicks in.