ISLAMABAD: Pakistan warned India on Friday against using a six-month sanctions waiver granted by the United States to operate Iran’s Chabahar Port — a key trade route to Afghanistan that bypasses Pakistan — to promote cross-border militancy in the restive, southwestern Balochistan province.
India signed a 10-year contract with Iran last year to develop and operate the port and this month stepped up its engagement with Taliban-ruled Afghanistan by reopening its embassy in Kabul, which was closed after the Afghan group seized power in 2021. The port on Iran’s southeastern Gulf of Oman coast was initially planned with a rail link to Afghanistan to help build the landlocked country’s economy through trade and reduce Kabul’s dependence on Pakistani ports.
The waiver was announced by Indian authorities after Washington said it was seeking to reach a broader trade deal with New Delhi following earlier tariff disputes under the administration of President Donald Trump.
Addressing his weekly news conference, foreign office spokesman Tahir Andrabi said Pakistan had taken note of the development.
“First of all, let me make one point clear. We welcome any decision that leads to the economic development and improvement of trade and business prospects in our brotherly country of Iran,” he said, adding that it was Washington’s sovereign decision to grant the waiver as the country that had originally imposed sanctions.
