Pakistan playing a role in facilitating the second round of talks between the United States and Iran was a “monumental setback” for the Narendra Modi government’s foreign policy, said the Congress on Monday.
In a social media post, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that India needed an “overhaul of its diplomatic engagement strategy and tactics which…Modi is simply incapable of doing”.
This came a day after United States President Donald Trump said that a US delegation would arrive in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Monday for the second round of negotiations with Iran.
On Monday, however, Iran stated that Tehran has no plans to participate in the talks.
On April 8, Washington and Tehran agreed to a two-week ceasefire to allow further negotiations to end the conflict. However, the peace talks, which were also held in Islamabad, collapsed on April 12.
On Monday, Ramesh stated that Pakistan was playing a “pivotal diplomatic role” amid the conflict in West Asia despite the country’s economy being in “dire straits” and depending on “largesse given to it by friendly countries”.
“It is abundantly clear that the substance and style of Prime Minister Modi’s regional and global engagement and narrative management have failed to isolate Pakistan, which has received a whole new branding,” the Congress leader wrote on social media.
He added that Pakistani military chief Asim Munir becoming “such a huge favourite of President Trump” is a “particularly severe setback for India”.
The Congress had criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government on April 8 as well, when Trump had announced the two-week ceasefire.
Ramesh had said then that Modi’s “self-styled vishwaguru [world leader]” image had been “thoroughly exposed”, with his “self-declared 56-inch chest shrunk and shrivelled”.
In a resolution adopted at a Congress Working Committee meeting on April 10, the party said that the Centre must “stop subordinating the national interest to electoral and ideological considerations” and take the Opposition into confidence on its strategy with respect to the conflict in West Asia.
The party had also alleged that the BJP-led government’s “myopic, xenophobic and unprincipled internationalism” has alienated India from its neighbours, and has also undermined efforts by successive governments to diplomatically isolate Pakistan.
The war
The US and Israel launched an attack on Iran on February 28, claiming that Tehran’s action posed an existential threat to Israel. Washington acts as a guarantor of Israel’s security. Iran retaliated by striking Israel and US military bases in the region and targeting major cities in Gulf countries.
Tehran also effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterbody connecting the Gulf to the Arabian Sea, for most international commercial vessels, triggering a global energy crisis. About 20% of global petroleum supply passes through the maritime chokepoint.
On April 8, Washington and Tehran agreed to a two-week ceasefire to allow further negotiations to end the conflict. While Israel, which was not involved in the talks, has not struck Iran since the ceasefire took effect, it had continued to attack Lebanon until the deal reached on Thursday.
The peace talks between Iran and the US that were held in Islamabad collapsed on April 12.
Israel has been claiming that Iran is close to obtaining a nuclear weapon, which could alter the regional security balance. Tehran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.
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