Post US diktat, Iran FM rushes to India
Sandeep Dikshit
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 13
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif will meet External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tomorrow as tensions rise in the Gulf, five days after a US diktat forced countries to stop directly buying oil from Iran. India is the second biggest consumer of Iranian oil after China.
The visit comes against the backdrop of Tehran asking friendly countries to stand up to the unilateral US embargo after it rescinded a six-country agreement with Iran called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
With India, the relationship goes beyond oil. Iran has allowed India to take over and modernise its port at Chabahar. Over time, India will make it a feeder port for trade with Afghanistan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe.
Zarif had travelled to Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov four days ago where he expressed Iran’s wish for “constructive engagement with credible and relevant actors”.
India fits the bill as Zarif has identified New Delhi among nine countries that are Tehran’s closest partners. Zarif had met Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh in Doha on May 1 but that was before the US “zero imports” order was implemented.
In a recent interview, Zarif specifically mentioned India when he said some of his country’s closest partners had informed him that they will do their best to continue their relationship with Iran.
Tensions, meanwhile, have mounted in the narrow funnel of the Persian Gulf after four oil tankers, including two from Saudia Arabia scheduled to carry crude to the US, were damaged.
India and Iran have earlier conducted oil trade through instruments that have gone under the radar of the America-controlled inter-banking systems. India keeps half of the amount due to Iran from oil purchases in an Indian account. Iranian businessmen are allowed to utilise these rupee funds to source goods for export to Iran.
Saudi oil tankers hit in ‘sabotage attacks’
- Saudi Arabia said on Monday that two of its oil tankers were damaged in mysterious ‘sabotage attacks’ in the Gulf as tensions soared in a region already shaken by a standoff between the US and Iran
- It came as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo scrapped a planned visit to Moscow to head to Brussels instead for talks with European officials on Iran
- Tehran called for an investigation into the “alarming” attacks and warned of “adventurism” by foreign players to disrupt maritime security
- Britain warned of the danger of conflict erupting “by accident” in the Gulf. AFP
