Iran's Rafsanjani was instrumental in improving relations with India at the cost of ties with Pakistan

Not many people know that Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former president of Iran, who passed away recently, was instrumental in a remarkable turnaround in Iran’s bilateral relations with India at the cost of its ties with Pakistan. In March 1994, an Indian military aircraft touched down at a snowed-in Tehran airport carrying the ailing minister of external affairs Dinesh Singh on a secret mission. Hospitalised at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and barely able to walk, the minister had a surprise visitor the day before. Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao had come calling to urge the minister to deliver an urgent letter in person to Rafsanjani.

The UN Human Rights Commission (now Council) was set to pass a resolution against India, prompting Rao to visit Singh and exort him to proceed to Tehran and blunt Pakistan’s edge at Geneva. It was not the India of the 21st century. In 1992, India had mortgaged its gold reserves and its economic woes were far from over. Russia was licking its wounds after the break-up of the Soviet Union, India’s most bankable ally. The Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), supported by influential Western nations, was moving a resolution at the UNHRC to condemn alleged Indian human rights violations in Kashmir.

The resolution, if passed, would have been referred to the UN Security Council to initiate economic sanctions and other punitive measures against India

The OIC convention requires decisions to be arrived through consensus. A retired senior Indian diplomat mentioned this episode at a Track-II interaction in a Gulf country few years ago. He said Rao had shrewdly chosen Rafsanjani to force his country to abstain from voting. Rao believed that once there was no consensus, the resolution was bound to fall through. The Iranians had no clue why the ailing Indian Minister was arriving in Tehran at short notice. Breaking protocol, Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati was waiting at the tarmac with bated breath. Later, Velayati would narrate in private gatherings that Singh’s perilous journey had intrigued him greatly. Singh held meetings with President Rafsanjani and the Speaker of the Iranian Majlis Nateq-Nouri. By evening, Singh had retuned to his bed at AIIMS in Delhi, but not before seeking an assurance from President Rafsanjani to Prime Minister Rao that “Iran will do all it can do to ensure that no harm comes to India”. But what Iran gained by yielding to India’s plea is still a mystery. Some say Rao had committed to settling issues bilaterally with Pakistan, which he later articulated with his famous “sky is the limit” statement on Kashmir. Seventy-two anxious hours later, Delhi learned that Iran had killed the OIC move to table the resolution — with far-reaching consequences for the region in the next decade. In New Delhi, then Pakistan High Commissioner Riyaz Khokhar was briefing Kashmiri separatist leaders and telling them Iran had backtracked from the important resolution that could have changed the course of the Kashmir dispute. The Indian delegation at UNHRC comprised leader of opposition Atal Behari Vajpayee, minister of state for external affairs Salman Khurshid, and Farooq Abdullah. Vajpayee and Abdullah competed to take credit for the diplomatic victory.

But little did they know that Rafsanjani and Dinesh Singh had laid the ground in Tehran three-days before. Singh passed away a month later. And Rao never attempted to steal the thunder from Vajpayee or Abdullah. It emerged later that when the Pakistan ambassador sought to move the OIC resolution, his Iranian counterpart in Geneva, acting on Rafsanjani’s directives, backtracked. His argument was that since Iran was a close friend of both India and Pakistan, it was ready to mediate and there was no need to raise this at an international forum.

That was the last time that Pakistan sought to table a resolution over Kashmir issue at any UN forum. Islamabad never forgot Rafsanjani’s role. Iran and Pakistan started moving apart in Afghanistan. India joined Iran to promote the Northern Alliance, which was inimical to Pakistani interests. Shocked and pained, Pakistan termed the episode a backstabbing.

The author is Editor, Strategic Affairs, DNA.