Iran Foreign Minister to visit India at the end of this week

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 27

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian will visit New Delhi at the end of the week amidst Tehran’s talks with world powers on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and urgent diplomatic business with India.

The Iranian Foreign Minister’s talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will give some clarity about the impact of US sanctions if some India-Iran plans are put in motion while talks on Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) are going on.

In the immediate term, India would like to regularly use the Chabahar port for humanitarian relief to Afghanistan after Pakistan dragged its feet for months on the first tranche of 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Kabul. In an earlier telephonic conversation, sources here had said that Amir-Abdollahian had offered to transfer India’s humanitarian including wheat and medicine aid to Afghanistan.

The threat of US sanctions, however, is inhibiting many companies from participating. This could also be the case for the tri-country initiative involving Uzbekistan for a land corridor from the same port to countries in Central Asia. Once the US restores the JCPOA, a pact that was abruptly junked by the Trump administration, India could consider marshalling funds for exploration in Farzad-B gas field in Iran where there has been no forward movement for years because of the fear of sanctions on participating companies.  

On the regional security side, NSAs Ajit Doval and Ali Shamkhani have been in regular touch as both countries have faced the heat from the Sunni-dominated Taliban in the past when it had hosted militant groups inimical to both countries. Shamkhani had last visited India in November to participate in the Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan.

Amid talks of cooperation with both Sunni Gulf monarchies and Shiite Iran, India has taken collateral damage because of their rivalry – two Indians have been killed in the UAE and seven taken hostage in Yemen. Iran backs Yemen’s Houthi rebels who had attacked UAE oil facilities in retaliation for the monarchies’ participation in the civil war in their country.  Two Indians and a Pakistani were killed in the blaze ensuing from the drone attacks. The seven Indians taken hostage were aboard a UAE ship hijacked by the Houthis who claim it was carrying war stores for their rivals.

Amir-Abdollahian will then leave for Sri Lanka which needs a helping hand due to its economic crisis. Both sides have finalised a tea-for-oil pact under which Sri Lanka pays off the import of oil by exporting tea to Iran. Sri Lanka will settle $ 251 million of its oil import dues by sending $ 5 million worth of tea to Iran. The Iranian Foreign Minister’s India-Sri Lanka tour comes after his trips to Moscow and Beijing.

Jaishankar was quick to call on the new Iran President Ibrahim Raisi before he was formally sworn in last year while India backed Iran’s inclusion in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Raisi then spoke of extensive economic cooperation with neighbouring countries. In separate Republic Day messages to President Ram Nath Kovind and PM Narendra Modi, Raisi expressed Tehran’s readiness to broaden relations with India and open a “new chapter in mutual cooperation”.