Kamal Ghorui
New Delhi: External affairs minister S Jaishankar spoke to his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi Wednesday, and according to the Iranian embassy here, exchanged views on the latest developments related to the US-Iran ceasefire, bilateral relations, as well as regional and international issues. Jaishankar said on X that he received a call from Araghchi. “Had a detailed conversation about various aspects of the current situation. We agreed to remain in close touch,” he said. This was the sixth conversation between the two foreign ministers since the start of the West Asia conflict on Feb 28 and subsequent threats related to the Strait of Hormuz. It is understood that Jaishankar stressed the need for resolving issues through dialogue and diplomacy and also safe passage for commercial shipping through the strait. The conversation also took place ahead of a meeting in India of the Brics foreign ministers next month. Iran is a member of the grouping and Araghchi is expected to participate in the meeting. There’s no official confirmation yet though. Brics has struggled to speak in one voice over the conflict so far and the meeting of special envoys last week in India, which is the current group chair, ended without a joint statement in the absence of a consensus. India attributed this to the presence of countries party to the conflict in the grouping. After weeks of Iranian blockade of the strait, the US has imposed its own naval blockade of Iranian imports to force Tehran to reopen the strait. According to a Reuters report from Washington, President Trump discussed how to mitigate the impact of a possible months-long blockade of Iran’s ports with US oil firms. Tehran warned of “unprecedented military action” against continued US blockading of Iran-linked vessels.
