Time to start a new relationship with Iran

This is from The Intersection column that appears every other Monday in Mint. If the United States had not coerced India to restrict its relationship with Iran in 2018, we would likely have bilateral annual trade of over $20 billion (importing 650,000 barrels a day of crude oil) and building strategic connectivity to Afghanistan and Central Asia through the Chahbahar port. Nothing in the bilateral relationship was responsible for our loss. India was forced to reduce its purchases of oil and its own goods exports by Washington’s sanctions and quotas. Now that the US-Israeli war on Iran has created a new situation in West Asia, India must take the initiative to quickly rebuild ties with Tehran. Whatever positions New Delhi took before and during the war, realism demands that it deal with the consequences as they have unfolded. The Iranians have given us an opening by extending India an invitation to the state funeral of Ayatollah Khamenei. New Delhi should respond by sending a…