Amitabh Dubey
Only two years ago, Iran and Pakistan were firing drones and missiles at each other. Pakistan signed a mutual defence treaty with Iran’s archrival Saudi Arabia last year. And yet Pakistan, along with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, is at the centre of talks over a ceasefire between the US and Iran. There is no guarantee that the talks will succeed, but Pakistan, for now, appears to have a seat at the “global high table”.
However, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar ended up looking like sour grapes when he labelled Pakistan a “dalal” nation for attempting to mediate between the US and Iran. It wasn’t so long ago that Jaishankar himself had presented India as a potential go-between in the Russia-Ukraine war. Given how urgently India needs the Middle East war to end to contain serious harm to the economy, silence may have served the national interest better.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poorly timed tilt to Israel on the eve of the war had already damaged Iranian trust in India. The Modi government subsequently course-corrected to protect Indian energy security. However, 18 Indian vessels carrying crude oil and LPG remain stuck in the Persian Gulf (as of 30 March) while Iran has reportedly given blanket permission for 20 Pakistan-flagged vessels to gradually transit the Strait of Hormuz.
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