Washington: A key aide to President Barack Obama has dismissed reports that the new US Administration has kept the nuclear deal with India on the back-burner.
Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official who co-chaired an inter-agency committee which formulated Obama's Af-Pak policy, also did not see Robert Einhorn's recent appointment as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's special adviser on non-proliferation issues as an impediment in implementation of the nuclear deal, signed during the Bush era.
"Senator Obama voted for the US-India civil nuclear deal last fall and he has made clear that he wants to see it implemented. At the same time, President Obama has also made it clear that arms control and non-proliferation are back on the American agenda," Riedel told PTI in an interview.
On the appointment of Einhorn which has caused a flutter in India because of his strong views against the Indo-US nuclear deal, Riedel said: "Einhorn is a very qualified American diplomat and an expert on nuclear issues."
"I think, you would see, early on in this Administration the attempt to get the United States Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and I think you would see in time that the United States would once again be urging all countries around the world to sign onto CTBT," he said.
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