European Council President Herman van Rompuy has called on India to use its influence with Iran to convince it to resume nuclear talks with the G5+1.
Reuters reports that Van Rompuy travelled to India with a delegation of EU representatives.
At a press conference in India, Rompuy maintained that he did not support military intervention in Iran as a solution to the nuclear disputes.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said in an earlier news conference that the international dispute with Iran needs to be resolved through diplomacy, and he refuses to join in the EU embargo on Iranian oil.
Singh maintained: "There are problems with the Iran nuclear program. We sincerely believe that this issue can be and should be resolved by giving maximum scope to diplomacy."
As the U.S. and the EU have been busy imposing sanctions on Iran, India has been trying to expand Iranian trade relations.
India is the fourth largest consumer of oil in the world, with most of its supply coming from Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Despite U.S and EU efforts to drum up support for its oil embargo, Iran’s Asian customers — mainly China, India and Japan — have not joined in.
On January 23, the EU announced that its member states will no longer purchase oil from Iran, allowing six months for all current agreements to be concluded.
Iran defiantly responded that the EU accounts for only a small percentage of its oil sales and other customers are lined up to buy its energy resources.
Furthermore, Iranian Parliament is now examining a motion to immediately stop the sale of oil to European customers. Iranian officials claim the EU oil embargo on Iran will harm the European states more than Iran.
