Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Indian official rejects reports about Iran

|
|
 
  
Published: May 2, 2007 at 11:28 AM

WASHINGTON, May 2 (UPI) -- India's foreign secretary rejected some news accounts that his country is building closer military ties with Iran, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Shiv Shankar Menon, who was in Washington for talks to speed up the U.S.-Indian civilian nuclear deal, expressed amazement over the accounts, which have created new concerns among some U.S. lawmakers about the nuclear agreement, which already is bogged down by other differences between the two countries.

The Post reported the weekly Defense News wrote in March the commander of Iran's navy had visited India to see if a joint working group should study whether India should train Iranian military personnel.

"I was quite amazed to see all those stories, quite frankly," Menon was quoted as saying. "I am not sure what they are based on, stories of military cooperation and so on."

The Indian official said his country and Iran set up a joint working group on defense in 2003 but "it hasn't met for many years," the report said.

Menon also was quoted as saying the Bush administration has not sought any assurances regarding India's military ties to Iran. "I am sure they know what's there. They haven't asked."

Topics: Shiv Shankar Menon
© 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Father's Day: Celebrity dads The 2012 Miss USA competition Faces of the 2012 French Open
2012 MTV Movie Awards Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee Notable deaths of 2012
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 21
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Miss USA host: Name a movie that portrays women in a positive way? Miss Ohio: Pretty Woman
Remember ladies, beating your boyfriend because he won't marry you to renew your visa won't improve...
Try meth when you really have an itch, or when you want to see in two places at once. Warning: mildly...
"Speed and alcohol may have been a factor" say investigators about the man killed when thrown from...
Surprise parties have a little more gunfire in Arizona
Rehabilitated former "bath salts" zombie explains what it's like to hunger for the flesh of the...