(Video) Rajya Sabha TV (RSTV) The Big Picture: India-Iran: Way Forward

Topic: India-Iran: Way Forward

Guest:

Ashok Sajjanhar, (Former Ambassador)
Harsh V. Pant, (Head, Strategic Studies, Observer Research Foundation)
Maj. Gen. Dhruv C. Katoch (Retd., Director, India Foundation)

Topic Description:

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held talks with his Indian counterpart in the national capital on Tuesday after New Delhi stopped purchases of Iranian oil this month in the wake of renewed US sanctions. Zarif who is on a two-day visit to India said the US is unnecessarily escalating tensions. India was Iran's top oil client after China, but halted imports after Washington reimposed sanctions on Iran and later withdrew waivers to eight nations, including India, which had allowed them to import some Iranian oil. Washington wants to block Iran's oil exports after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 accord between Iran and six world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear programme. The sanctions have more than halved Iran's oil exports to 1 million barrels per day or less, from a peak of 2.8 million barrels per day last year. According to media reports Iran is insisting on exporting at least 1.5 million barrels per day of oil as a condition for staying in an international nuclear deal. On this edition of the big picture we will analyse the way forward for the India-Iran bilateral relationship.