India welcomes US-Iran ceasefire
Iran, US and Israel announce two-week truce
Freedom of navigation in Strait of Hormuz important: MEA
New Delhi, Dubai : India on Wednesday welcomed the two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran and called for unimpeded freedom of navigation and flow of commerce through the Strait of Hormuz, while hoping that lasting peace will return to West Asia.
New Delhi said it continuously advocated that dialogue and diplomacy are essential to bring an early end to the hostilities. The conflict was triggered by US-Israeli strikes against Iran on February 28.
India’s reaction came hours after Iran and the US agreed on the conditional ceasefire that included the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, the strategically key waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman that handles roughly 20 per cent of global oil and LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas).
“We welcome the ceasefire reached and hope that it will lead to a lasting peace in West Asia. As we have continuously advocated earlier, de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy are essential to bring an early end to the ongoing conflict,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
“The conflict has already caused immense suffering to people and disrupted global energy supply and trade networks.”
“We expect that unimpeded freedom of navigation and global flow of commerce would prevail through the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.
Jaiswal said India hopes that the “development” in West Asia will also encourage peace efforts in Ukraine.
The announcement on the ceasefire resulted in a fall in the global crude oil prices and a rally in stock markets.
Global oil and gas prices had surged after Iran virtually blocked the Strait of Hormuz. The move severely impacted energy supplies to countries around the world including India.
In a social media post, Trump said the US had agreed to “suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks” provided Iran agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“We agreed to the provisional ceasefire because we have already met and exceeded all military objectives,” he said.
The announcement on the ceasefire came amid growing outrage over Trump’s ultimatum to Iran that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” if Tehran does not reopen the key waterway.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the movement of ships through the Strait will be allowed under Iranian military supervision.
“If attacks against Iran are halted, our powerful armed forces will cease their defensive operations,” he said.
“For a period of two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations,” Araghchi said.
In his remarks, Jaiswal said India has always been in favour of peace.
“We welcome all steps that lead to peace and stability. We hope that this development in West Asia will also encourage peace efforts in Ukraine,” he said.
Jaiswal said ensuring safety, security and welfare of the large Indian community in the West Asian region remains India’s “highest priority”.
The spokesperson also made a mention of the fresh advisory issued by the Indian embassy in Tehran urging Indians to expeditiously exit the country.
“We are given to understand that we have around 7,500 Indian nationals who continue to remain in Iran. As of Tuesday, 1,864 Indians, including 935 students and 472 fishermen, exited through Armenia and Azerbaijan,” he said.
To a question on the transit of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, he said India is closely following the developments.
“We have been in touch with Iran and several other countries and stakeholders to ensure the unimpeded transit of our ships. As a result of our efforts, we’ve had several of our ships which have crossed the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.
India is in touch with its partners and other stakeholders to serve its interests, he said, adding there is no discussion with Iran on paying any fee.
There were reports that Iran would collect a fee for allowing ships to transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, Iran, the United States and Israel said they reached a deal for a two-week ceasefire, with Tehran saying it would negotiate with the United States in Islamabad beginning Friday.
Trump initially said Iran proposed a “workable” 10-point plan, but he later called the plan fraudulent without elaborating.
Trump’s threats to launch devastating strikes on Iran hit a new extreme hours before the ceasefire when he warned, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if Iran failed to make a deal that included reopening the vital Strait of Hormuz.
In a statement Wednesday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it supports Trump’s decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks, but that it doesn’t include the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, where more than 1,500 people have been killed.
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday the US will work with Iran to “dig up and remove” its enriched uranium that was buried under joint US-Israeli strikes last summer.
Trump said on social media, “There will be no enrichment of Uranium” and that none of the material had been touched since the June attacks.
He previously said the US would retrieve the deeply buried material, which is expected to be an intensive undertaking, if it struck an agreement with Iran.
“We are, and will be, talking Tariff and Sanctions relief with Iran,” Trump said.
Through Trump had said Tuesday the US found a 10-point ceasefire proposal from Iran “workable”, the president on Wednesday suggested many of the points in his 15-point plan, which Iran had rejected, had been agreed to.
Iran has not said that, nor has confirmed it would work with the US to retrieve the buried uranium.
Meanwhile, speaking about the ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia “from the very beginning spoke about the need for swiftly shifting this escalation onto a peaceful track, onto a track of political and diplomatic contacts, negotiations”.
Peskov said “given yesterday’s rather harsh statements from different sides, which elicited a lot of emotions around the world,” Moscow welcomed the news.
“We welcome the decision not to follow the path of military escalation further, not to carry out strikes on civilian targets,” Peskov said. “We consider this to be very important.”
The Kremlin spokesman expressed hope that “each side will be able to defend its interests not through armed intervention, but at the negotiating table.”
At the end of his weekly general audience Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV called the ceasefire a “sign of true hope” and repeated a call for the faithful to join him in a peace prayer vigil Saturday in St. Peter’s Basilica. The previous day, the pope condemned US President Donald Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilisation as “truly unacceptable” and said that any attacks on civilian infrastructure would violate international law.
Meanwhile, Italy’s foreign minister welcomed the ceasefire as a positive sign for both peace in the Mideast and the Italian economy. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote on social media: “Iran cannot be allowed to possess nuclear weapons, and it is right that the US does not bomb the civilian population.”
Saudi Arabia welcomed the ceasefire deal between the US and Iran and called for unrestricted opening of the Strait of Hormuz.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Riyadh supports efforts to achieve a permanent deal that addresses “all issues that have resulted in instability and insecurity over the past decades”.
The statement called for keeping the Strait of Hormuz open according to UN agreements governing international waterways “without any restrictions”.
