Opinion | Iran War: Has New Delhi Lost Out, And Has Pak Really Gained? By Shashi Tharoor |
Jun 25, 2026 12:03 pm IST
Iran War: Has New Delhi Lost Out, And Has Pak Really Gained? By Shashi Tharoor
To imagine a Nobel Peace for the terrorist-sponsoring Field Marshal Asim Munir may be a fantasy too far. The world sees clearly the difference between an autonomous actor and a message-carrying stool-pigeon.
Shashi Tharoor Shashi Tharoor MP, Columnist
Shashi Tharoor MP, Columnist
The recent conclusion of the hundred-and-seven-day conflict in West Asia, marked by a tenuous United States-Iran MoU that aims to be converted into a peace pact over the next 60 days, offers a case study in the shifting sands of modern geopolitics. While the global economy breathes a collective sigh of relief as oil flows slowly resume and Brent crude prices tumble from their wartime peaks back toward stability, the strategic ledger of this brief but devastating war reveals a complex tapestry of miscalculations, asymmetric survival, and diplomatic realignment.
In parsing the structural outcomes of the conflict from New Delhi, our principal focus naturally falls on the overt participants - the frustration of Washington's futile bombardment and unachieved regime-change objectives, the resilience of Tehran's asymmetric chokehold on the Straits of Hormuz, and Israel's tactical degradation of regional proxies balanced against its failure to secure absolute Iranian capitulation. Yet, beneath these immediate strategic realities lies a subtler, equally consequential diplomatic theatre, where South Asian powers sought to navigate the crisis, resulting in a dramatic up-ending of traditional roles.
India's West Asia Policy
For decades, New Delhi's foreign policy in West Asia was defined by an elegant, calculated non-alignment, recently rephrased as multi-alignment. This strategy allowed it to cultivate deep civilisational, economic, and energy ties with Iran while simultaneously building robust, high-tech security partnerships with Israel and maintaining vital relationships with the Gulf monarchies. This strategic balancing act was not merely a passive moral stance; it was a pragmatic necessity dictated by geography and economic imperatives. However, the recent hostilities exposed an........