'Nuke deal will help India in reducing poverty'

A FAIR DEAL: ElBaradei says the nuclear agreement with India is fair and reasonable.

      

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Mohammed ElBaradei: India will need to pursue all alernative sources of energy. India needs to rely on coal, oil, gas and on nuclear.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: You play the role of a diplomat who draws the line between Iran’s interests and the way US defines global interests. You know where and exactly how much pressure US can put on the world if it wants to push something. The fear in India is that once we go ahead with this deal, somehow India will lose its independence and spine in its foreign policy and will have to tow the American line.

Mohammed ElBaradei: I can’t speak for Indian Government. However, as I said that if this deal were to go through, there are 45 countries who will lift their restrictions about dealing freely with India. I can’t say if one country can exert pressure against another country, like India, at an international level. That remains a question mark. My stress is to start with a dialogue on building trust rather than doubt. India cannot be pushed around and was not pushed around.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: There’s a talk about how you ensured that America doesn’t get its way around Iran. How true is that?

Mohammed ElBaradei: That’s not true at all. My job is to make sure that the Iranian nuclear programme is clean, peaceful and under full agency control. We have been trying to do that for the last four years.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: So is this a witch hunt by Americans?

Mohammed ElBaradei: There are different perceptions. I know my agenda is my (IAEA) charter—it’s my Bible. My job is to ensure two things: a)that the Iranian programme is used for peaceful purposes and b) I will do everything possible to resolve the differences about the Iranian programme through peaceful means. The enrichment taking place in Iran is under agency safeguards. The question is whether there’s any other enrichment taking place. So that’s where we are unable to say if their programme is completely safe. We are in Iran this week, working on this programme and hopefully, in a couple of months we’d be in a much better position.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: In your vast experience as being the Director General of the IAEA, what was your toughest moment?