Time over, says Gary Ackerman

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Time over, says Gary Ackerman
4 Jul, 2008, 0308 hrs IST, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: Even as the Bush administration continued to push for the
nuclear deal, an influential US legislator said that the US Congress will
not have enough time to take up the nuclear deal.

Contrary to the reassuring noises on the deal from the administration,
Congressman Gary Ackerman, who is chairman of the House of Representatives
panel on west and south Asia, said that time has already run out for getting
US Congressional approval for the 123 Agreement, the final step towards
operationalising the nuclear deal.

"They're not going to be able to do it in time for us to act in this
calendar year and certainly not during President Bush's administration, " he
told a news agency from Pakistan. "The clock has run out on our side of the
border, because the clock has run out on their side."

Mr Ackerman, who starts his visit to India on Thursday, is the first US
legislator to state in such clear terms that the deal would not be completed
in the term of US president George W Bush, who demits office in January.

But the administration, which has continued to remind the UPA government
about the diminishing timeline, is clearly going to attempt to clear the
deal in the available time and within Mr Bush's term. Early this week, state
department spokesman Tom Casey reiterated the time is running out stand but
said that the US understood the political difficulties facing the
government.

"We have our own political calendar too, and our own legislative calendar,
and it's very difficult, at this point, to assume that we could be able to
get an agreement through (Congress) but certainly we'll make every effort,"
he said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's plan is to ensure that the nuclear
deal reaches the US Congress by September-end.

However, this calculation is based on the assumption that the IAEA board of
governors will approve India-specific safeguards agreement and Nuclear
Suppliers Group, which has 45 members, will grant a waiver to India by
September. With the deal already running late, any further delays would only