Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India “did the right thing” by allowing the Iranian warship, IRIS Lavan, to dock in Kochi port amid the US-Israel war with Tehran and the sinking of another Iranian naval ship, IRIS Dena, off the coastal city of Galle in Sri Lanka.
The IRIS Lavan docked in the port of Kochi in the Indian state of Kerala on March 4, the same day the IRIS Dena was torpedoed by a US submarine in the Indian Ocean. Killing at least 87 crew members. The Sri Lankan Navy rescued the survivors and transported the bodies to its shores, while Indian forces said they also responded, but by then Sri Lankan soldiers had already taken action.
As for the other two Iranian ships in the region, India received a request to dock the IRIS Lavan on February 28, the day the war began in West Asia; It was cleared the next day. She docked at Kochi on 4 March.
“I think we approached it from a humanitarian point of view, regardless of whatever the legal issues were. I think we did the right thing,” Jaishankar said at the annual Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi.
The Sri Lankan authorities said on Friday that they were escorting another Iranian naval ship, the “Bushehr”, to a port on the east coast and transferring most of its crew to a naval camp near Colombo. This appears to have been the third ship that S. Jaishankar spoke about in the Raisina Dialogue.
“These two ships, because there were two other ships as well, were coming to review the fleet, and then somehow they were caught on the wrong side of events,” Jaishankar said at the event.
American President Donald Trump said that destroying the Iranian navy is one of the goals of the war he and Israel launched against the Islamic Republic a week ago.
The American attack on the ship IRIS Dena occurred in Sri Lanka’s exclusive economic zone, 19 nautical miles off the coast, outside its maritime borders.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath said during a conference in New Delhi that Sri Lanka is sponsoring 32 sailors from the Iranian frigate in accordance with Colombo’s obligations under international treaties.
Asked whether Colombo was under pressure from the United States not to return the Iranians, Herath did not answer directly.
“We have taken all steps in accordance with international laws,” Herath said.
IRIS Lavan docking schedule in India
India received the docking order for the IRIS Lavan on February 28, the day the war with Iran began. A source told the Hindustan Times, adding that the request “was urgent because the ship encountered technical problems.”
Approval for the award was granted the next day, on March 1.
“IRIS LAVAN has since berthed in Kochi on March 4. In this context, its 183-member crew is currently being accommodated at naval facilities in Kochi,” the source told HT.
