Nitin Goyal
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India was very cooperative even during the period of sanctions, Iran’s Ambassador to India Gholamreza Ansari told The Hindu in his first interview since Tehran concluded a nuclear deal with the E3+3 powers.As a reward, after sanctions are lifted, “Iran is ready to welcome Indians, even without a bidding process,” Mr. Ansari said.
“Sanctions was a very serious issue, and no one could get around them. We know they have their own interests, so they were as helpful as they could be in such circumstances.”
He described the n-deal as “an exclusive achievement for the developing world” as well as a victory for diplomacy in a region where western interventions have earlier failed.
Iran promises preferential treatment to Indian investors
After sanctions are lifted, Iran is willing to give Indian businesses preferential treatment, says Iran’s Ambassador to India Gholamreza Ansari.
In his first interview since the world E3+3 powers announced a nuclear agreement with Iran, Mr. Ansari said, “Iran is ready to welcome Indians, even without a bidding process.” Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Ansari said “Sanctions was a very serious issue, and no one could get around them. But even in those very hard and difficult situations, India was very cooperative. We know they are a developing country and they have their own interests, so they were as helpful as they could be to Iran in such circumstances.”
While the Indian government built trade relations of more than $14 billion with Iran, the actual trade done and oil imports had begun to flag by 2013-2014 under pressure from the U.S. As a result, progress on other bilateral initiatives, like the development of the Chabahar port project in which an MoU was first signed in 2002, had also slowed, even as China offered bigger investments for the port as well as oil development projects to the tune of $50 billion. India’s bid for the Farzad B oilfields have also run into trouble recently over delay issues.
According to Mr. Ansari, recent steps by India to sign an MoU on Chabahar was a welcome step for the whole region, and Prime Minister Modi and President Rouhani discussed several “big projects” on connectivity when they met at the Ufa summit this month.
“When we talk of Chabahar, this isn’t just about two countries, it is about connectivity between India, Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Russia. This could give a huge boost to the whole region. PM Modi’s government is approaching this the same way as President Rouhani is.”
Victory for diplomacy
The ambassador described the Iran nuclear deal as “an exclusive achievement for the developing world” as well as a victory for diplomacy in a region where western interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya were a “complete failure.”
“This is the first time a country has come out of Chapter 7 sanctions without a war. This is the first time a developing country will receive approval for enrichment from the Security Council,” he added.
On Israel’s contention that the deal was a “mistake of historic proportions,” the ambassador said the country was consumed by “Iranophobia.” “So when they say the deal is a failure, of course, it is a failure for Iranophobia, for them,” he added.
In a reply to a question from The Hindu, Israeli ambassador Daniel Carmon said: “The deal that was signed with Iran is a bad, dangerous deal for our region and for the world…Even under IAEA’s safeguards, Iran will be able to continue deceiving, evading and concealing its nuclear program, as it has done for the past decade,” adding that Israel had shared its “grave concerns about the deal” with India.
However Mr. Ansari denied that Iran’s nuclear programme would ever build a bomb. “Our leader has even issued a fatwa on this,” he said. “After this deal, Iran will be just concentrating on cooperation in the region including with Saudi Arabia. Terror is the big menace, we must focus on this. We must focus on development in the region.”
