NEW DELHI – In a stern warning to India, Senior Iranian diplomat has saidthat Iran will end “special privileges” for India if New Delhi tried toreplace Iranian crude with supplies from Saudi Arabia, Russia, and theUnited States.
Speaking at an event organised by the All India Minorities Front at theParliament annexe, Massoud Rezvanian Rahaghi said that Iran had tried tohelp India whenever possible on strategic issues like energy andconnectivity, but argued that India’s investment promises in the port ofChabahar have not been delivered.
“In previous round of U.S. sanctions between 2012 to 2015, Iran did itsbest to ensure security of oil supply to India. …However, if India wereto replace Iran with countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, U.S. andothers for the 10% of its oil demand then it may have to revert todollar-denominated imports which mean higher CAD and deprivation of allother privileges Iran has offered to India,” Mr. Rahaghi said.
The Iranian response comes days after India was asked by the Donald Trumpadministration to drastically cut down crude supply from Iran. India hasnot spelt out how it would address the concerns of the U.S. government. TheMinistry of External Affairs has maintained that Delhi would consult “allstakeholders” in ensuring energy security.
The Iranian official said that Iran remained an open market for Indianrequirements like petroleum, , urea and LNG and Iran understood India’senergy requirements.
*U.S. withdrawal from nuclear deal*
Mr. Rahaghi also spoke about the impact of U.S. withdrawal from the Irannuclear deal, also known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), andargued that unilateralism by the U.S. was imposing a heavy cost on theworld. He cautioned that a conflict in the Gulf region would “drive up” theprice of crude oil and impact growing powers like India and China.
Mr. Rahaghi said that Iran came as a “blessing” to India in New Delhi’squest to access the markets of the emerging economies in the Central Asianregion but hinted that Tehran is not satisfied with India’s investmentlevels in the Chabahar port.
“…It’s unfortunate that Indian investment promises for expansion ofChabahar port and its connectivity projects have not been accomplished sofar, and it is expected that India take immediately necessary measures inthis regard if its cooperation and engagement in Chabahar port is really ofstrategic nature,” said the Iranian diplomat.
Iran reserved the right to act in response to U.S. measures. “Iran andSyria are winning against terrorism and some of these forces are now comingto Afghanistan,” he said while asking regional powers to remain vigilant ofspill over effects from the wars in West Asian region.