Global Geopolitical Series: India to abide by UN sanctions only in assurance to Iran

Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif sighed a relief earlier this week, during his trip to India, which is the second largest buyer of Iranian crude after China and meeting with Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj who reiterated India’s support to the country and assured that India would abide by UN sanctions only not by unilateral sanctions by any individual country as U.S. sanctions are set to get re-imposed later this year with president Trump pulling the United States out of the Iran nuclear agreement earlier this month citing the deal as disastrous for the United States.

While India’s stance is being reflected in the media as a stand out against the United States over its unilateral sanctions against Iran; India’s move has been pretty consistent. In the past also, it only abided by UN sanctions and was importing crude by bypassing U.S. sanctions back in 2013/14. It had to reduce Iranian shipments as the sanctions by the U.S. chocked off banking channels and EU sanctions choked insurance covers for oil tankers.

India has a vested interest in Iran as Asia’s second largest importer of oil looks to Iran for a lower price of imports and has been building Chabahar port in Iran, which is expected to reduce India’s transport costs by a third.