Diplomat ‘Misquoted’, Will Ensure Flexibility In Oil Supply To India: Iran

After recent reports stating that Iran had warned India of scrapping ‘special privileges’, if India buys oil from either Saudi Arabia, United States of America (USA) or Russia, the country’s embassy in New Delhi has said that it’s diplomat was ‘misquoted’, as reported by Hindustan Times.

The Iranian Embassy in New Delhi yesterday (11 July) also assured India of ‘flexibility’ in oil supply as reported by ANI. The embassy, however, asked India to keep in mind the friendly relations between the two countries.

According to the report, the statement issued by the embassy said, "Iran has always been a reliable energy partner for India and others, seeking a balanced oil market and rational prices of oil which ensures the interests of both countries as consumer and supplier.

Iran understands the difficulties of India in dealing with the unstable energy market and it has done and will do its best to ensure security of oil supply to India through offering various flexibility measures which facilitates our bilateral trade in particular Indian export to Iran. India is a sovereign nation and taking into account many criteria including its friendly relations with supplier countries, market factors, geopolitical and geo-economical considerations and potentials and reliability of the oil suppliers chooses its energy partners."

US had imposed ‘sanctions’ on Iran and had asked the oil importing countries to cut imports from the country by 4 November 2018. Due to this, there are apprehensions that even India may cut oil imports and replace it by importing oil from other countries, though India had denied it categorically. Nevertheless, crude oil imports from USA touched a record high in the month of June.