India’s announcement of sending a huge trade delegation to Iran may put Indo-US ties under strain at a time when Washington is seeking international cooperation to put maximum economic pressure on Tehran to give up its nuclear programme.
Friends of India at the Capitol Hill termed the recent announcement by commerce secretary Rahul Khullar as “damaging” to the US-India relationship, with one of them describing it as a “provocative” statement coming in the immediate aftermath of foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai’s Washington visit.
Mr Mathai did a lot of explaining over India’s position on Iran and the reasons for it continuing to buy oil from Iran during its recent visit to Washington.
It is understood that US officials on Friday cautioned India that it would be subject to American sanctions if New Delhi was seen in any way trying to bail out Iran from the tough economic situation it is in following the series of US-led international sanctions.
However, it said that bilateral trade items like food would not attract any sanctions.
“We have seen reports that an Indian official announced yesterday that India intend to increase commercial exports to Iran. Our goal is to reduce revenues that fuel Iran’s nuclear activities, not curtail foodstuffs or humanitarian items for the Iranian people,” a state department spokesperson said. “The Iranian regime has a long history of deceptive business practices and we caution all countries against any interactions with Iranian institutions that could trigger sanctions or be misused by the regime,” the official said.