Washington, DC -- Today, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Taskforce on Nonproliferation, released the following statement on that two Indian firms had been sanctioned for helping Iran’s missile program.  Rep. Markey urged release of a long-delayed State Department report on violations of the Iran-Syria Nonproliferation Act before the historic vote on the U.S.-India Nuclear Agreement, which details all entities that have been sanctioned for not complying with international laws to stop proliferation of nuclear and other weapons.  The sanctioning of two Indian firms indicates that India is unable to fully police bad actors in its jurisdiction from helping Iran, which has been arming terrorists like Hezbollah and repeatedly threatening the Middle East and the United States. 

Markey said, “The Bush Administration has once again delayed, obfuscated, and misled this Congress by withholding information about these violations by Indian entities before we voted to grant historic nuclear cooperation with the Indian government.  As the world watches Hezbollah terrorists fire Iranian-supplied missiles into Israel each day, Congress needs to hold those that supplied those missiles, and those who are helping them, fully accountable for their actions.  Congress should have known about these Indian nonproliferation violations before it paved the way for them to get even more nuclear materials without any controls.” 

“The Bush Administration is so busy giving away nuclear goodies to India, it has forgotten to ensure that a country that the President once called part of an “Axis of Evil” , Iran, isn’t then able to turn around and use those weapons against us or our allies in the Middle East,” Markey concluded.

Two days ago, Markey offered a recommital motion to H.R. 5682, the "United States and India Nuclear Cooperation Promotion Act," which would have required the President to certify, before any future nuclear cooperation agreement between the U.S. and India goes into effect, that India is fully and actively cooperating with U.S. efforts to prevent India from acquiring nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, including acquisition of an uranium enrichment capacity.  The Markey amendment was defeated by a vote of 192 to 235.

According to reports, two Indian entities have been engaged in exports of sensitive technologies that could assist Iran's efforts to acquire missiles.  The sanctions being announced today come in addition to at least eight non-proliferation sanctions the U.S. has filed against at least seven Indian companies or persons, including two sanctions in December 2005.

For further information, visit http://markey.house.gov.