Middle East crisis puts India in a tough position – former envoy

Neither Iran nor the Israel-US coalition is listening to New Delhi, Deepak Bhojwani has told RT India

The Middle East conflict has put New Delhi in a very difficult position diplomatically, a former Indian envoy has told RT India.

Neither of the sides involved in the conflict – the US-Israel coalition and Iran – is listening to India, former ambassador to Venezuela, Deepak Bhojwani, said in an exclusive interview aired on Thursday.

“We are just trying to see if we can maintain and secure our interests, primarily energy and other supplies from the Gulf region,” Bhojwani said.

New Delhi is also seeking to secure the interests of the Indian diaspora in the region, he added.

Bhojwani said India has kept its channels open with most countries in the neighborhood, with some exceptions such as Pakistan.

“We’ve rebuilt our ties with Bangladesh even, with Sri Lanka, which at one time were perilous, with the Maldives and so on,” he said. “With China also, we are rebuilding. So, basically, we’ve got our lines open with all countries, including Iran.”

Referring to India cosponsoring a resolution in the UN Security Council that condemned Iran’s recent attacks on Arab countries, he said, “It was because a Thai tanker bringing goods to India was attacked and burnt.”

“Iran may feel it’s justified in attacking countries in the Gulf. But when you extend those attacks to civilian infrastructure and so on, it’s questionable whether you’re doing the right thing,” Bhojwani said.

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He said quiet diplomacy is always preferable, though there are times when you have to stand up for principles.

Bhojwani added that India followed a cautious diplomatic approach when it came to the US.

“Because what tends to happen is that given his [US President Donald Trump’s] mercurial character, if we challenge him openly, it’ll offend not just his ego, but his image within his country, because that’s what apparently matters more to him than anything else,” he said.

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The wiser course for most countries is to just keep quiet unless it’s something existential, such as with Denmark in the case of Greenland, Bhojwani added.

The former envoy said the rules-based international order has been violated repeatedly by the collective West.

“The rules-based order was effectively denuded and eventually shredded by the West itself,” he said, adding, “So there is no such thing, in my opinion, as a rules-based order right now.”