New Delhi, Jan. 24: The mercury is rising over Iran.

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat today warned of a “confrontation” with the government if Delhi again voted against the West Asian country at the February 2 and 3 emergency session of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA meet will discuss Iran’s nuclear programme, which the West suspects is aimed at building atomic weapons.

“We will not tolerate if the government votes against Iran. The Left front will meet and take a formal stand. We are going to write to the Prime Minister on this,” Karat said at a public meeting that marked the beginning of a campaign against the US establishment and President George W. Bush, who is expected to visit India this March.

Tariq Ali, a leading Left intellectual, brought with him to the meeting a flavour of the strident anti-US protests spreading across Latin American countries.

Karat dashed any lingering hopes the Congress-led government may have had of a tempered Left response to Bush’s visit. “We have to give him a warm reception so warm that he will feel the heat. The day he arrives in Delhi there will be large demonstrations on the street,” he said.

“We will raise the issue in Parliament when it begins its budget session on February 16 if the government once again sides with the US at the IAEA conference.”

For the Left, the two areas of conflict with the government are economic and foreign policies, but the latter is proving more tricky. “We have to work to get the Centre to change its foreign policy,” Karat said.

The Left has no intention of pulling down the government. At the same time, it is not going to relent on its anti-US stand and can embarrass the Congress both inside and outside Parliament if the government again decides to side with the US against Iran like it did at the Vienna vote last year.

“If you (the government) want to compromise on India’s traditional anti-imperialist stand, you will have to enter into a confrontation with the Left,” Karat said.

The CPM leader said the US is “already renewing pressure” on the government and that US undersecretary of state Nicholas Burns “came here and asked” Delhi to vote against Tehran. “Many countries at the last IAEA conference abstained from voting with the US,” he added. “The Indian government did not even have the guts to do so.”