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| India-Pakistan |
| Paying a Price For Launching Israeli Spy Satellite |
| 2008-02-07 |
| by Praful Bidwai India's traditionally friendly relations with Iran have come under unprecedented strain because of the launching of an Israeli spy satellite by an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) rocket a fortnight ago. This comes on top of recent tensions caused by India's refusal to attend talks to complete a commercial deal on a proposed Iran-India-Pakistan gas pipeline. The satellite is equipped with a synthetic aperture radar, which captures images of small as well as large objects day and night while penetrating cloud cover. It is widely believed to be designed to enable Israel to track activities in its neighbourhood, in particular, activities pertaining to Iran's nuclear programme. On Tuesday, Seyed Mahdi Nabizadeh, Iran's ambassador in New Delhi, publicly regretted India's assistance in lifting off the ‘TECSAR’ satellite in a hush-hush manner from a launching pad in southern Andhra Pradesh state on Jan. 21. The Indian government justified the launch on technical and commercial grounds. But Nabizadeh said: "We hope the issue could be considered from the political point of view also. Our relationship with India is very strong and good. Many are trying to destroy (that) relationship… We hope that wise and independent countries such as India would not give their space technology to other countries to launch instruments for spying against friendly countries like Iran." Nabizadeh added: "The United States continues to be hostile (to Iran), and even today is trying to create problems between Iran and its friendly countries. We expect friendly countries to realise this..." |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #1 Now you don't think that maybe, just maybe New Dehli is getting images of WackyPakyLand with a side dish of Chinese thrown in too |
| Posted by: Cheadderhead 2008-02-07 19:01 |