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Iran's charges against MT Desh Shanti are absurd: India

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Reacting angrily to the virtual hijacking of the Indian oil tanker MT Desh Shanti by Iran, New Delhi has provided proof that the ship was at least 400 nautical miles away from the area it is being accused of polluting. The ship was forcibly intercepted by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in the Persian Gulf last week and taken to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.

New Delhi has also told Tehran that the charge that oil spill from MT Desh Shanti polluted Iranian waters was absurd because the vessel was not carrying any crude at that time. In fact, the ship was carrying sea water as ballast when the IRGC intercepted it in international waters and forced the captain to move it towards Bandar Abbas.

These facts clearly show that Tehran is hitting back at New Delhi which has been steadily decreasing its oil imports from Iran. This is due to the sanctions imposed by the United States of America and the European Union to ensure that Iran doesn’t go ahead with its nuclear weapons programme. In fact, since 2010, Iran has slipped from being the second-highest supplier of crude to India, just behind Saudi Arabia, to being the sixth-largest supplier now. The supply of crude from Iran slipped from 18.1 million tonnes to 13.3 million tonnes in 2012-13, a fall of about 26.5%.

Much of India’s crude imports has now moved towards Iraq, which is unacceptable to Iran. Faced with this steady reduction of oil demand from a customer as large as India, Iran hit back last week by detaining MT Desh Shanti on false charges. New Delhi immediately swung into action and MEA and Shipping Corporation of India officials prepared a detailed dossier showing that the charges were absurd.

“We have supplied the longitude and latitude of the last position of the ship that has been certified by international authorities. This clearly shows that the ship was at least 400 nautical miles away from the position which the Iranians claim we polluted,” a senior foreign ministry official told dna. In fact, the ship was on its way to Fujairah port in Abu Dhabi and was only carrying sea water as ballast when the Iranians intercepted the ship.

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