Ready To Supply India Oil, Need To Find Way Around ‘US Sanctions’: Iran’s Envoy
-
Salma Hossein
- . November 5, 2022
- . Update: November 11, 2022 1:03 am
The Islamic Republic of Iran’s ambassador to India, Iraj Elahi, conveyed to India its readiness to resume oil supplies and increase economic ties between the two countries.
Iraj Elahi said in an interview with the news agency ANI on Friday, “We expressed our readiness to Indian officials to increase our economic ties. We are ready to deliver oil.”
He said that the two countries were best friends in dealing with oil. However, sanctions affected the cooperation between the two countries. Iraj Elahi said, “We hope that the two countries can, and should, find a way according to their national interests and not according to illegal US sanctions.”
Elahi said that United Nations and US sanctions were an obstacle for the Islamic Republic. Iran was one of India’s top energy suppliers till 2019. However, India stopped buying crude oil due to the threat of secondary sanctions by the United States. According to him, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the issue of oil sales when they met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Uzbekistan in mid-September.
Read | Iran nuclear deal has no future: German coalition party official
He also called to expand cooperation with India against terrorist groups. According to Iraj Elahi, cooperation between the two countries can help to combat the Islamic State or Daesh. He also condemned the terrorist group’s attack on the Shia shrine of Shah-e-Cherag in Shiraz on October 26. He said that Daesh posed a threat to the entire region. He said that Daesh killed Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims, Christians and Kurds. He called on other countries to be united to fight against terrorism.
According to Elahi, the terrorist group and the terrorist attacks are growing because support from “some countries is still available.” He said that terrorist groups got financial support from some countries. However, he did not reveal the names of the countries.
