New Delhi, November 19
Strains in the India-Iran ties came to the fore today. A day after it abstained from voting for the first time on a resolution at the United Nations slamming Iran for its human rights record, India summoned Iranian Charge d’affaires to the foreign office and conveyed its deep disappointment over certain comments made about Jammu and Kashmir by Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
YK Sinha, joint secretary (in-charge of Iran) in the External Affairs, told Iranian diplomat Reza Alaei this morning that New Delhi regretted that Tehran had chosen to disregard its sensitivities and questioned this country’s territorial integrity. New Delhi’s action came barely days after Ayatollah Khamenei’s controversial message to Haj pilgrims worldwide. “Today the major duties of the elite of the Islamic Ummah is to provide help to the Palestinian nation and the besieged people of Gaza, to sympathise and provide assistance to the
nations of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Kashmir, to engage in struggle and resistance against the aggressions of the United States and the Zionist regime,” Khamenei said in the message.
New Delhi had been upset with Iran over the statements emanating from Tehran on Kashmir since July. The Ayatollah had spoken about Kashmir on July 21 and the Iranian Foreign Ministry had also spoken about it following violence in the valley n the wake of the burning of the Holy Quran in the USA on September 18. India had taken up the matter with Iran on both the previous occasions as well but did not make it a big issue.
New Delhi does not believe that the Ayatollah’s comment could be considered a ‘slip of the tongue’. It feels there is a trend in what Iranian leaders have been repeatedly saying on Kashmir. However, it has also noticed that the official position of Iran on Kashmir is at variance with what the leadership has been saying. However, New Delhi has this time sought to send out a clear message to Iran that it must remain mindful of India’s concerns, especially on issues which concern the country’s territorial integrity.
As a mark of its displeasure with Tehran, India late last night abstained from voting for the first time on a resolution on the human rights situation in Iran at the UN, piloted by Canada along with the European Union (EU). A total of 80 countries voted in favour of the resolution and 44 against while 57 nations abstained from voting. On all previous occasions, New Delhi had voted against the resolution. Asked why New Delhi had chosen to abstain from voting, the External Affairs Ministry spokesman said “our decision on the vote was made after due deliberations.’’
In fact, the support for the Islamic Republic over its human rights record has rapidly been decreasing over the years. In the voting held last year, 74 countries had voted in favour of the resolution against Iran as compared to 70 in 2008. The number of those voting against the resolution slamming Iran had declined from 51 in 2008 to 48 last year. Even the number of countries abstaining from voting had declined from 60 in 2008 to 59 last year.
