While the war in West Asia has created a crisis of shortage of petroleum products and petrochemicals worldwide.
The war in the Middle East, while causing a global shortage of petroleum products and gas, has also raised many contradictions. On Wednesday night, the Iranian Navy prevented a Pakistani tanker from passing through the Strait of Hormuz and forced it to turn back to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The tanker, named 'Salen', was under the flag of the Caribbean country of St. Kitts, despite being Pakistani-owned.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Navy (IRGC) Commander Ali Reza Tangsiri said in a message that went viral on social media that the vessel was not allowed to enter the Strait of Hormuz because it did not meet the 'legal conditions'. This action was taken on the night when two Indian tanker vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz and entered the Gulf of Oman. The tankers, named 'Pine Gas' and 'Jag Vasant', are expected to reach India on Thursday night or Friday morning. Both are carrying LPG gas (cooking gas). Expressing unhappiness over this development, Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has commented that the US-Israeli have given the whole world a 'gift' in the form of 'lockdown' of the Strait of Hormuz by waging war against Iran.
The passage through which ships of all countries used to pass unhindered earlier now depends on Iran's consent. It is worth mentioning that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has made it clear that the Strait of Hormuz is closed to ships of countries supporting America, not to 21 'friendly countries' of Iran. These 'friendly countries' mainly include China, Russia, India, Iraq and Pakistan. Despite such a declaration, it was a matter of shame for Pakistan not to allow the Pakistani tanker to enter the Strait of Hormuz. Khawaja Asif described this shame in words.
It is worth noting that the trilateral meeting of Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt is trying to make a ceasefire and then an agreement between the US and Iran possible. In this regard, the initial phone conversation with US President Donald Trump was held by Pakistani Prime Minister Azam Shahbaz Sharif. He also offered to host the talks regarding the agreement by Pakistan.
Trump has put forward 15 conditions for the agreement, in response to which Iran has put forward five conditions. These conditions are a complete rejection of the American demands. There are also indications from the American media that Iran would prefer the negotiations regarding the agreement to be held in Turkey instead of Pakistan. If the negotiations are held in Turkey, it is natural that Pakistan's influence will automatically decrease. Despite such circumstances, many political constituencies in India (especially the Congress Party) feel that the initiative for the US-Iran agreement should have been taken by India; by giving Pakistan the opportunity to take the initiative, India has lost its importance.
Such thinking is not wrong in its own right. Although External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has tried to dismiss it as 'unreasonable' and argue that 'India will never become a broker like Pakistan', the reality is that Pakistan has surpassed India in terms of global standing. Despite such diplomatic failures, India should also continue its efforts for a ceasefire at its own level.
It is true that India is not only dependent on Arab countries for its crude oil supply, the number of its suppliers is quite wide. But on the other hand, the fact is that the supply of LPG, LNG and PNG is mainly dependent on imports from the Gulf countries. Therefore, if the efforts for a ceasefire are seen to be fruitful, then they should be supported directly; that too without thinking that these efforts are a joint effort of India's opponents. The war in West Asia has created economic chaos all over the world. The sooner this chaos is stopped, the better it will be for the world.
