10-17-2007, 04:02 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>US disappointed, but hopes against hope </b>
Pioneer.com
S Rajagopalan | Washington
It may be all over bar the shouting at the New Delhi end, but the United States, concealing its disappointment over the sharp setback to the civil nuclear deal, has sought to send out strong signals that it is still hopeful of seeing the arrangement through.
Hours after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh informed President George W Bush on Monday that "certain difficulties" have arisen over operationalisation of the deal, the State Department refrained from taking a pessimistic view of the impasse.
<b>"I think we're going to continue to work on our part and we assume they (India) are going to continue to work on theirs and it'll be done in a time that is appropriate for both sides," </b>State Department's deputy spokesman Tom Casey said.
All through his briefing that was dominated by searching questions on the fate of a deal that has all along been viewed as one of Bush's few foreign policy successes, Casey sought to convey the US assessment that the deal is still doable and that it has strong bipartisan support in the US Congress.
In private, however, US officials appeared to be less enthusiastic. Without citing names, The Washington Post reported that "US officials acknowledged deep disappointment with the abrupt (Indian) decision, which they described as unexpected".
After the Prime Minister's remarks in New Delhi on Friday, virtually putting the deal on the backburner, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns and other senior administration officials reportedly scrambled over the weekend to try to revive the deal.
Anxious not to ruffle any political feathers in India, the State Department spokesman was careful in his responses. Asked if the deal was slipping away and New Delhi was not pushing the issue hard enough, he said he would <b>"leave it to Indian officials to talk about their own internal political discussions", but stressed that the deal was a good one for both India and the US and for the broader efforts of non-proliferation.</b>
When a reporter asked if the US was not becoming "a little impatient with the Indians", Casey commented: <b>"Look, you know, each one of these agreements is complicated. They've got a whole variety of things associated with them. I'm not going to try and tell the Indians how to manage their own internal process on this. We certainly think this is again an arrangement that's positive for both countries and the broader international community and we'd like to see it done as soon as possible, but that's within the context of what each country has to do and has to accomplish."</b>
Questioned about his "rosy" approach, looking at the deal "as glass half-full instead of as glass half-empty," the spokesman remarked: "As Undersecretary (Nicholas) Burns has told you, as diplomats we are always hopeful."
On the US side, the next step is to work out an appropriate arrangement with the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers' Group, but this is to be gone through after India finalises its safeguards pact with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Pending that, Washington has had "a number of good conversations with some of the individual nations", Casey said.
A statement issued by National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe on the Bush-Singh telephone conversation gave no details about what transpired between the two on the nuclear deal.
Congressman Gary Ackerman, the former Democratic co-chair of the India Caucus, said the deal was too important to die.<b> "I would suspect there might be a delay because of the political situation in India, but don't count this deal out," </b>he said.
<b>There is a feeling here that Washington's powerful non-proliferation lobby will use the current opportunity to further its opposition to the arrangement worked out between the two countries. </b>Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association, who has been in the forefront of this opposition, commented: "<b>I would not say the deal is dead. It's in the hospital in intensive care. The reason it's in intensive care is that there is a tight timeline that the US and India have to keep to follow through on all the steps."</b>
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Pioneer.com
S Rajagopalan | Washington
It may be all over bar the shouting at the New Delhi end, but the United States, concealing its disappointment over the sharp setback to the civil nuclear deal, has sought to send out strong signals that it is still hopeful of seeing the arrangement through.
Hours after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh informed President George W Bush on Monday that "certain difficulties" have arisen over operationalisation of the deal, the State Department refrained from taking a pessimistic view of the impasse.
<b>"I think we're going to continue to work on our part and we assume they (India) are going to continue to work on theirs and it'll be done in a time that is appropriate for both sides," </b>State Department's deputy spokesman Tom Casey said.
All through his briefing that was dominated by searching questions on the fate of a deal that has all along been viewed as one of Bush's few foreign policy successes, Casey sought to convey the US assessment that the deal is still doable and that it has strong bipartisan support in the US Congress.
In private, however, US officials appeared to be less enthusiastic. Without citing names, The Washington Post reported that "US officials acknowledged deep disappointment with the abrupt (Indian) decision, which they described as unexpected".
After the Prime Minister's remarks in New Delhi on Friday, virtually putting the deal on the backburner, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns and other senior administration officials reportedly scrambled over the weekend to try to revive the deal.
Anxious not to ruffle any political feathers in India, the State Department spokesman was careful in his responses. Asked if the deal was slipping away and New Delhi was not pushing the issue hard enough, he said he would <b>"leave it to Indian officials to talk about their own internal political discussions", but stressed that the deal was a good one for both India and the US and for the broader efforts of non-proliferation.</b>
When a reporter asked if the US was not becoming "a little impatient with the Indians", Casey commented: <b>"Look, you know, each one of these agreements is complicated. They've got a whole variety of things associated with them. I'm not going to try and tell the Indians how to manage their own internal process on this. We certainly think this is again an arrangement that's positive for both countries and the broader international community and we'd like to see it done as soon as possible, but that's within the context of what each country has to do and has to accomplish."</b>
Questioned about his "rosy" approach, looking at the deal "as glass half-full instead of as glass half-empty," the spokesman remarked: "As Undersecretary (Nicholas) Burns has told you, as diplomats we are always hopeful."
On the US side, the next step is to work out an appropriate arrangement with the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers' Group, but this is to be gone through after India finalises its safeguards pact with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Pending that, Washington has had "a number of good conversations with some of the individual nations", Casey said.
A statement issued by National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe on the Bush-Singh telephone conversation gave no details about what transpired between the two on the nuclear deal.
Congressman Gary Ackerman, the former Democratic co-chair of the India Caucus, said the deal was too important to die.<b> "I would suspect there might be a delay because of the political situation in India, but don't count this deal out," </b>he said.
<b>There is a feeling here that Washington's powerful non-proliferation lobby will use the current opportunity to further its opposition to the arrangement worked out between the two countries. </b>Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association, who has been in the forefront of this opposition, commented: "<b>I would not say the deal is dead. It's in the hospital in intensive care. The reason it's in intensive care is that there is a tight timeline that the US and India have to keep to follow through on all the steps."</b>
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