Author: C. Raja Mohan
Publication: The Hindu
Date: June 26, 2002
Iran wants to cooperate with India
in rooting out extremism from the region and is ready to expand security
cooperation with India, a senior Iranian official said here today.
Hassan Rouhani, secretary of the
Supreme National Security Council of Iran, said the two nations "have to
work together in isolating extremist elements in the region''.
In an exclusive conversation with
The Hindu, he said Iran "is ready to sign a document with India for bilateral
security cooperation''.
Dr. Rouhani is here at the invitation
of the National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra. The two officials had
met in Teheran during the visit of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee,
to Iran last April and had agreed to intensify the contacts between the
two national security establishments.
India and Iran already have arrangements
for intelligence sharing and are considering greater interaction between
the two Home Ministries. The contacts between the two defence establishments
are also growing.
Pointing to the fruitful engagement
between India and Iran in "countering the unacceptable Taliban regime'',
Dr. Rouhani called for continuing that cooperation in the coming years
to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan and counter narcotics trafficking.
Assessing that "the Al-Qaeda has
not yet been damaged'' by American military operations in Afghanistan,
he suggested that the group was perhaps "reorganising itself''.
India, Iran and Afghanistan "need
to cooperate'' in dealing with the Al-Qaeda, he said.
In countering the threat of terrorism
and extremism in the region, it was important to address the "root causes''
as well as deepen cooperation between the "security and intelligence agencies''
of key regional powers, he added.
Asked to elaborate on the "root
causes'', he said the "continuing presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan''
and the unabated aggression against the Palestinian people were allowing
the forces of extremism to gain ground in the region.
Speaking on the prospects for bilateral
cooperation with India, he said India and Iran could expand their development
of a North-South corridor on the Eurasian landmass to include Afghanistan.
New Delhi and Teheran are the founding
members of the initiative to create a transport corridor between Iranian
ports and the Russian heartland.
Dr. Rouhanis suggested that India
could gain access to Afghanistan and Central Asia through Iran by making
Kabul a partner in this project.
On the joint pipeline project to
transport Iranian natural gas to India through Pakistan, he said the two
sides were awaiting the feasibility reports on different options.
He felt that a recently announced
pipeline project involving Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan might
not be commercially viable, because it does not include India, which is
the biggest consumer of natural gas in the region.
Dr. Rouhanis called on Mr. Vajpayee,
and the Defence Minister, George Fernandes today.He also held consultations
with Mr. Mishra.
He had held talks with the External
Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh, yesterday.
