As the U.S. sanctions waiver for Iran’s Chabahar port ends on Sunday (April 26, 2026), the government faces a major test in strategic autonomy, as it may have to choose between exiting the 23-year-old port project or facing American sanctions.
Officials of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) have been holding talks with U.S. counterparts on the issue since October 2025, when Washington extended the waiver for six months until April 26, 2026, to give India time to “wind down” the project. Given the U.S.-Iran war and a series of U.S. measures targeting Iran under the U.S. Treasury’s “Operation Economic Fury”, officials said they were not hopeful of another extension.
‘Recent development’ has cast shadow on Chabahar Port's future: Parliamentary panel
On Friday (April 24, 2026), U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made it clear that Washington would not extend the waiver of sanctions on the purchase of Iranian oil, that expired on April 19.
“Not the Iranian [sanctions],” Mr. Bessent said, according to The Associated Press. “We have the blockade, and there’s no oil coming out.” “And we think in the next two, three days, they’re going to have to start shuttering production, which will be very bad for their wells,” he said, outlining the U.S. strategy to squeeze Iran’s heavily sanctioned economy further.
