N-Deal: Govt to brief Left on IAEA talks on Mon

N-Deal: Govt to brief Left on IAEA talks on Mon

Agencies

New Delhi, March 16: The crucial meeting of the UPA-Left committee on the Indo-US nuclear deal will be held in New Delhi on Monday where the Government is expected to hand over the Left leaders copies of the draft India-specific safeguards agreement it has reached with the IAEA.
Government is also likely to brief them on the over three-month long negotiations it held with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the safeguards agreement.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of major Left parties asserting that they would withdraw support to the Congress-led government if it went ahead with the nuclear deal with the US.

However, the Left parties have been saying that they would not be responsible if the government falls.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the committee, exuded confidence that the Government would be able to convince the Left parties.

"I am hopeful of sorting out the issue (with the Left)," Mukherjee had said.

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said that the Left parties were totally opposed to the deal as it was ‘anchored in the Hyde Act’ which had conditions that were against the interests of India.

"The Government will have to move forward only on the basis of the findings of this committee. If the committee says that the deal is wrong, then it should be dropped," he told PTI.