India and Saudi Arabia have backed ongoing international efforts to resolve the controversy over Iran's nuclear programme peacefully through dialogue while encouraged Tehran to respond to the efforts to remove "doubts" over its atomic ambitions.
In a declaration issued after a meeting between visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Saudi King Abdullah here Sunday night, the two leaders called for continuation of
these efforts.
Their call came a day before UN atomic agency IAEA begins a four-day meeting of its 35-member board in Vienna to discuss its latest report on Iran's nuclear programme.
The two countries "encouraged Iran to respond to those efforts in order to remove regional and international doubts about its nuclear programme, especially as these ensure the right of Iran and other countries to peaceful uses of nuclearenergy according to the yardsticks and procedures of
International Atomic Energy Agency and under its supervision,"the declaration said.
They also emphasised the importance of regional and international efforts focusing on making the Middle East and Gulf Region free of all nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction.
The US, Russia and France have accused Iran of spurning a UN-backed offer to exchange the bulk of Iran's low-enriched uranium for fuel plates for an Iranian medical reactor.