India PM tells Obama that Iran sanctions will hit poor

Prime Minister Manhoman Singh said on Tuesday he told U.S. President Barack Obama that New Delhi opposed sanctions against Iran over its nuclear plans and such measures often only affected the poor. Speaking to reporters at the end of a two-day nuclear security summit in Washington, Singh said New Delhi opposed Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions but did not believe sanctions would be an effective tool. "I said to him that as far as we are concerned, we don't think sanctions really, I think, achieve their objective. Very often, the poor in the affected countries suffer more," Singh said when asked about his meeting with Obama on Sunday. "As far as the ruling establishment, they are not really affected by these sanctions in any meaningful way," he said. The United States and its allies are pushing for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at producing atomic weapons and Iran says is purely for civilian uses such as generating power.