US threatens India with sanctions

President Trump has threatened to impose sanctions against India if it continues to import oil from Iran. Issuing a strict warning yesterday, the US said that there is a “zero waiver on any nation dealing with Iran”.  A state department official who was prompted by a reporter to clarify if that would include New Delhi and Beijing said “on China and India, yes, certainly”.

The official, Indian sources reported, further warned New Delhi of secondary sanctions for going against the ban. He added that Indian and Chinese companies would be subject to the same sanctions as those in other countries.

This is a blow to India. Iran is a major source of oil for the country which is the third biggest market for petrol, behind the US and China.

Trump’s reluctance in giving any concession is likely to infuriate the Indians further. Soon after US President Donald Trump announced that he would be pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal in May, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said: “India follows only UN sanctions and not unilateral sanctions by any country.”

Read: US says pushing allies to halt Iran oil imports, no exceptions

Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was a major setback for India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. The leader of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party had manged to make significant political gains due in large part to cheap oil price. Iran has been a major source of oil for Delhi, which requires uninterrupted supply of energy to meet its goal of bringing electricity to 300 million Indians living in rural parts of the country.

Analysts have pointed out that this strategy is a matter of survival for the BJP, and that a huge party governing 1.3 billion people isn’t going to sacrifice its electoral strategy for the sake of Trump’s pique and his national security advisor John Bolton’s war-mongering.