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[Diplomacy] Middle East: Iran-US Nuclear Dead & Operation

Raahat to rescue Indians from Yemen
Posted By Mrunal On 15/04/2015 @ 9:00 pm In Diplomacy | 18 Comments
1. Prologue
2. Iran-US Deal: Various Names
1. Salient Features of the Deal
2. Why Iran and West Agreed?
3. Indian interest in E3+3 deal
4. Chinese Interests?
3. Operation Raahat Fateh Ali Khan
1. Reasons for conflict:
2. Features of Op.Raahat:
3. Challenges in Op.Raahat
4. Lessons for future

Prologue
Since December 2014 Week1, Ive been preparing weekly current
affairs file in MS-Excel.
But these two topics: (1)Iran-West nuke deal and (2) Op. Raahat
became too large. Its inconvenient to read within excel. Hence Im
extracting them out into this separate article under diplomacy section.
As such this article is not among the best of my work. Due to paucity of
time, and lack of teammates, Ive just organized points from
newspapers without doing much research. e.g capital cities, timelines,
background etc.
This is only meant as quick reference for UPSC interview. This is not a
full fledged prelim cum mains cum interview article.

Iran-US Deal: Various Names

because E3 = France, Germany, United Kingdom;

other 3 = China, Russia, USA.

E3+3 deal

UNSC P5+1
Lausanne agreement

because 5 permanent members of UNSC + Germany

because signed in that city of Switzerland.

All of them one and same, meant to control Irans nuke program for next 10-15
years, so they cant produce nuclear bomb.

Salient Features of the Deal

1. Iran can run nuke facilities for civilian / peaceful purpose only.
2. IAEA to have full inspection powers.
3. Spent fuel wont be reprocessed, itll be exported.
4. Overall no. of centrifuges to be reduced.
5. Only 1 enrichment facility at Natanz.

6. Fordow facility will be turned into a research centre.

7. Araks heavy water reactor will be modified so it cant produce
plutonium.
Why Iran and West Agreed?
Iran agreed
West agreed because
Irani influence increased in this region after
UNSC, EU, USA sanctions will be lifted.
US exist from Afghanistan and Iraq. So Irani
Iran can freely trade in international market,
help necessary to prevent spread of ISIS and
borrow loans from AIIB, World Bank etc.
Huthi rebels
Crude oil prices declined, and given the
After Stuxnet cyber-attack on Irans nuke
economic sanction, Iran has not much to
facilities, Iranis updated their antivirus
export. If sanction not lifted, the resultant
software(!) so now very difficult to hack
economic crisis may have led to another
again. And noone wants to launch fullArab spring like revolution.
fledged military attack, except Israel.
Danger of aerial attack from Israel. This
if no deal happened then within 3 months,
nuke-peace deal means USA will prevent
Iran would have sufficient enriched uranium
Israel from any military adventure for the
to produce a bomb.
time being.

Indian interest in E3+3 deal

1. Iran can help India counter terror groups Jundullah, LeT, Haqqani, AlQaeda, Taliban, ISI and Pak.Army.
2. India can easily develop Irans Chabahar port and gain land route entry
to Afghanistan, to counter Chinese influence from Lianyungang port and
Silk road / belt initiative.
3. We can develop Irans Bandar Abbas port, and International NorthSouth Transport Corridor (INSTC) to connect with CIS, Europe, Russia.
It cut down time and cost in shipping from Mumbai to Astrakhan,
Russia. INSTC was planned in 2000, it has Iran, India, Russia + 9 other
countries.
4. If #3 is done, we can get raw material and export finished goods to CIS
and via CIS to EU. (Foreign Trade policy 2015 wants this).
5. Iran can provide steady oil and gas supply to India, because Iran has
worlds 4th largest oil and 2nd largest natural gas reserves.

6. Indian fertilizer cos can invest in Irans gas based plants. Remember
Natural gas to CH3 to NH3 to Urea connection.
7. Defense ties in long term; but with Challenges. Because If we cozy up
too much with Iran then Saudi, Israel and USA wont like it. Not ONE
BIT. Therefore, India will have to balance 3 legged three-legged stool
with different sized legs.

Chinese Interests?
1. They always supported Iran during sanction years, so now time to reap
rewards by signing contracts e.g. new oil line from Gwadar Port
(Pakistan) to Iran.
2. China wants Iran to join silk belt/road initiative and AIIB.
3. Even Pak. Interested to align with Iran instead of Saudi, therefore Pak
Parliament recently declined to give military support to Saudis
campaign in Yemen to fight against Huthi rebels. Because Iran is
supporting Huthis rebels.

Operation Raahat Fateh Ali Khan

Purpose: Operation Raahat to rescue Indian citizens from Yemen during
March 2015 (week4):

Reasons for conflict:

1. Shia Huthis rebels have ousted Yemenis President AbdRabbu Mansour
Hadi. Since these Huthis are allies of Iran (Shia), so Saudi Arab (Sunni
monarchy) begins airstrike on those rebels in Yemen.
2. Initially Pakistan too wanted to send troops to support Saudi Arabia, but
now Pak Parliament changed stance, perhaps because of the Chinese
interest in Iran.
3. After E3+3 deal, Iraq asked Huthis for ceasefire while UNSC put arms
embargo on them.
4. Overall, 4k legal Indian workers and 5k illegal Indian workers caught in
cross fire, hence the need for Op. Raahat to rescue them.

Features of Op.Raahat:
1. Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs General (Retd.) V.K. Singh
to oversee operations from Djibouti port.

2. INS Sumitra shifted from anti-piracy ops to rescue op in Djibouti. INS

Mumbai, Tarkash also supported.
3. Two IAF C-17 Globemasters and two Air India flights also arranged.
4. So total 3 ships x 4 planes. (or may be more, who has time to count
every ship for exam!)
5. MEA kept in touch with Yemenis Government and rebels for a safe
passage of Indians. Modi calls up the new Saudi king Salman Bin Abdul
Aziz to help out.
6. We saved 500+ civilians from 17+ nations, including Pakistan. Pak also
saved few Indians and Modi thanked Sharif for it. This soft diplomacy
will help in long run.

Challenges in Op.Raahat
1. Saudi began air-strikes on March 26, so India should have begun
rescue operation sooner. Indian Government says people were warned
in advance, but they did not move out quickly.
2. As such MEA told Indians to leave Yemen in Jan 2015 itself but most
did not because
a. their passports/visas were in custody of their employer
b. Economic/financial reasons- person doesnt want to lose job /
wages
3. Logistics and technical issues such as fuelling the ships, getting visa
clearances etc.

Lessons for future

1. India should negotiate for better working conditions of Indians working
in Middle Easter nations. So during and after such crisis, their jobs,
properties etc is protected or insured.
2. 60 lakh Indians working in Middle east, and region on constant boil.
Therefore, SAARC nations should setup an early warning system and
collaborate for evacuation in Middle east.
3. Indians usually not harmed by either party in most Middle Eastern
conflicts because of Indias neutral stand. So, Government should
remain cautious not to show tilt towards any party (pro Saudi / Pro Iran /

Pro Syria / Shia / Sunni / Pseudo-ISIS apologists) until migrants are

evacuated.