In a clear snub to Pakistan’s theory on Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav being a RAW spy, Iranian Ambassador to India Gholamreza Ansari said on Thursday that his Government is conducting its own enquiry on this matter, results of which will be shared with “friendly countries.”
“We are trying to complete our investigations in this case. We are looking at it very accurately and we will be sharing the findings with the friendly countries,” Ansari said during an interaction at Foreign Correspondents Club, clearly indicating that Iran is not blindly buying Pakistan’s claims. Iran is probing Jadhav’s business operations in Chabahar Port and if his dhow could have been used for illegal operations.
The envoy added Iran was surprised by the timing of Jadhav’s arrest that came when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was about to visit Islamabad. Interestingly, while Pakistan claimed they had discussed Jadhav’s arrest and India’s attempt to destablise Balochistan, Raouhani denied having any such talks during his meetings with Pakistani leadership and officials.
Pakistan had caught Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, on March 3 claiming him to be an Indian spy working to destablise Pakistan. A former German envoy has already claimed that Jadhav was caught by Taliban and sold to Pakistan security forces. Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan has already termed Islamabad’s claims as false.
In fact, Iran is finding it difficult to secure its borders from Pakistan-based terrorists. Ansari conceded a lot of terrorist activities were taking from Pakistani soil and that Iran was trying to impress upon Pakistan to stop these. “Problem is we are the main partners involved in stopping such activities on our borders. We are trying to impress upon Pakistan to be active as well,” Ansari said.
The Iranian envoy made it clear that post lifting of US-led economic sanctions on it, Tehran is looking at relations with friends like India with a new approach. “After sanctions a new situation emerged between India and Iran. But despite the difficult circumstances, the oil export to India continued and a new way of looking at India emerged. During sanctions, we bought things from Indian market which otherwise we were getting from Western market. Indians were helpful though it was clear they were under pressure. But their relations with Iran during those days became advantageous for India,” Ansari said.
He added that while energy is a key ground for cooperation with India, new areas including strategic will be new avenues for joining hands between two countries. Iran is very enthusiastic about the agreement with India on development of Chabahar port and improving connectivity. Iran is also interested in investing into petrochemical refineries and reservoirs in India.