America
India's 'substantial sacrifice' helped seal Iran deal: White House
By
By Arun Kumar Washington, Aug 8
Acknowledging India's
"substantial sacrifice" in backing the sanctions regime against Iran,
the White House has again warned that if the Republican-controlled
Congress unilaterally kills the Iran nuclear deal, it would greatly
damage America's standing.
"No longer would countries like India,
who have been making a substantial sacrifice over the years, have any
interest or incentive to continue to enforce those sanctions against
Iran," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Friday.
Indian
leaders had agreed to curtail the import of oil from Iran making an
"economic sacrifice" and backed the sanctions against Tehran to advance
US effort to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon through
diplomacy, he said.
"In essence ...countries like India had
agreed that they would take these steps, even at their own expense, to
try to reach this broader international agreement," he said.
Earnest
recalled that when the sanctions were originally put in place, US
officials travelled around the world "including to India, sat down with
the Indian government and asked them to curtail the amount of Iranian
oil that they imported into the country".
"And we acknowledged in
the context of those discussions that this would be an economic
sacrifice that the people of India and that the economy of India would
have to make," he said.
"But Indian leaders agreed to it by
saying that this is something that they were willing to do if they can
advance our effort to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon
through diplomacy," Earnest said.
"And the good news is that that
agreement has been reached. And it is an agreement that is supported by
the international community -- 99 percent of the world as the President
(Barack Obama) has described it," Earnest said.
"And that's why
it would be so damaging to the standing of the United States for the
United States Congress to act unilaterally to kill this deal," he said.
"No
longer would countries like India, who have been making a substantial
sacrifice over the years, have any interest or incentive to continue to
enforce those sanctions against Iran," Earnest said.
"There is no basis, there is no credible claim for why they would be willing to do that," he said.
"And
there is no denying the significant negative impact on United States
credibility for the United States to be isolated in this way."
"That's
why the President has said if Congress were to move forward to kill
this deal or kill this agreement, it would, in fact, yield a better deal
for Iran," Earnest said.
"Because what we would see is that Iran
would get sanctions relief; they would have the ability to sell oil to
India and get the proceeds of doing so...without having to submit to the
most intrusive set of inspections that have ever been imposed on a
country's nuclear programme," he said.
"That's why I've long said that the case before Congress is that Iran is going to get sanctions relief," Earnest said.
"The
question is whether or not the United States and the international
community is going to get anything for it. And that is ultimately the
choice before members of Congress right now," he said.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])