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Chabahar Port Deal: India's Strategic Gamble Amid US Sanctions

India's ten-year agreement with Iran to develop the Chabahar port faces many obstacles. Once supported by the US, the deal now faces the threat of sanctions from the very same ally.

By Sanjay Kapoor
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Chabahar Port

Chabahar Port Deal: India's Strategic Gamble Amid US Sanctions | Photo courtesy: Amohammadid, Wikimedia Commons

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When India signed the Chabahar port deal with Iran for 10 years, it did not expect two occurrences: that the United States of America, which had supported India’s port deal from 2016-18, would threaten New Delhi with sanctions if it decided to go ahead with the Chabahar port deal; secondly, that two of the strongest advocates of the port deal would die so inexplicably and suddenly. Though the Iranian, US, and Israeli governments have not blamed anyone, calling it an accident, there are too many unanswered questions that suggest the deaths of the two leaders were not really normal.

Why did the helicopter carrying the President and Foreign Minister meet with an accident when the two other choppers were unaffected by the bad light, etc.? Was their death linked to Chabahar? This may sound preposterous, but some months ago, US President Joe Biden saw merit in the allegations that the Hamas attack on Israel had something to do with the IMEC deal after the G20 summit in Delhi. As the Indian foreign minister pointed out, “connectivity” corridors have become really big deals.

Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, who had traveled to Tehran earlier this year, recalled the contribution of the two leaders, President Ebrahim Raisi and his Foreign Minister, Hussein Amir-Abdollahian, in signing the deal, which could be a game changer in ties between the two countries. He claimed that this agreement was different from the trilateral deal signed in 2016 as it was limited to a terminal, Shahid Behesti. This agreement is unique as it pertains to India managing a port in a foreign land for the next 10 years, and the two deceased Iranian leaders had a big role to play in the agreement. Though the US has threatened sanctions, the Chabahar port has promised much to both the Asian countries and the region. India has committed to bringing in about 300 million US dollars to build

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