Indian Left parties Wednesday asked the Manmohan Singh Government to ensure that Iran's nuclear issue is not referred to the UN Security Council.

"We demanded that India should decisively assure the world that we will not allow the Iran issue to be raised at the Security Council,'' Communist Party of India (Marxist) politburo member and Member of Parliament in the Upper House, Sitaram Ychuri told reporters Wednesday following an hour-long meeting of the Left parties with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Left parties, comprising the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and the All India Forward Blok (AIFB) are supporting the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance coalition government from outside.

The Left parties are also not ready to buy the argument advanced by the government that its vote in favor of the resolution on the Iranian nuclear cooperation program at the IAEA was aimed at averting a major confrontation between Iran and the international community.

"The vote against Iran was not of any consequence to the final outcome,''Yechuri said, adding "But it was a positioning vote that unfortunately gives an impression that India is aligning with the US. It is against the common minimum program that says we should follow an independent foreign policy.''

Since Manmohan Singh's government is a conglomeration of various political parties, all allies at the time of Government formation in May 2004 had agreed on one common minimum for governance and which seeks consensus before initiating any concerning the governance.

The Left parties had played a major role in the formulation of the common minimum program.

During the hour-long meeting, the prime minister, along with defense minister Pranab Mukherjee and foreign secretary Shyam Saran, was understood to have explained to Left leaders New Delhi's stand on the controversial vote that has upset Tehran.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Mukherjee admitted that there were some differences with the Left leaders over Iran issue but said that they would be sorted out.

Twenty-two nations supported a resolution Sept. 24 requiring Tehran to be reported to the Security Council for its failure to assure the Vienna-based agency that its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes.

India, which recently inked a deal with the United States that envisages US assistance in India's civilian nuclear program, sided with the US and voted in favor of the resolution.

Source: Xinhua