US President Donald Trump has announced a postponement of attacks on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for five days, “subject to the success of ongoing meetings and discussions”. The announcement follows his earlier 48-hour ultimatum to Iran to either open the Strait of Hormuz or face further strikes. Iran had said that any such action would be reciprocated with similar attacks on other West Asian countries and Israel. Iran, after Trump’s announcement, has denied any direct talks with the
US President Donald Trump has announced a postponement of attacks on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for five days, “subject to the success of ongoing meetings and discussions”. The announcement follows his earlier 48-hour ultimatum to Iran to either open the Strait of Hormuz or face further strikes. Iran had said that any such action would be reciprocated with similar attacks on other West Asian countries and Israel. Iran, after Trump’s announcement, has denied any direct talks with the US. To be sure, it has been recognised that regional efforts to restore peace and open the Strait of Hormuz should continue.
Whether this development really marks an end of hostilities — it is unlikely that Israel will continue the war if the US withdrew — or is just a temporary pause is anybody’s guess at the moment. Markets are willing to be optimistic. Crude oil prices plunged, and international equity markets jumped following the US president’s announcement.
Hours before Trump spoke about a temporary ceasefire, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi gave his first detailed statement in the Lok Sabha on the ongoing crisis. While an end of hostilities, and more importantly reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, will really help everyone, including India, there is a widespread consensus that the economic after-effects of the war are not going away anytime soon. The biggest reason for this is the damage to energy infrastructure in West Asia and the time required to reboot the shut production facilities. The PM rightly said that India’s first response to the crisis was to safeguard the well-being of the 10-million-strong Indian diaspora in the region. He also spoke at length about minimising the economic pain of the war because of disruption to the energy supply chain and larger petrochemical industrial complex. India’s response, the PM said, is working on securing supplies from both West Asia and other regions, taking a differentiated approach on whether the higher costs of inputs are passed on to users or absorbed by the exchequer (for fertilisers, it will be the latter, he said) and rationalising the availability of scarce inputs among different stakeholders.
Modi also reiterated India’s commitment to restoring peace by dialogue rather than siding with either of the parties in the war. India, along with other like-minded countries, should do all it can to ensure that the five-day ceasefire is the end of the current war.
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