Exerpts from Asia Times by
Peter J. Brown November 12, 2018 12:08 PM
Chabahar Port Development
Washington granted a sanctions waiver on the Chabahar port in Iran India is spending up to $500 million to develop. Chabahar is the most reliable way to connect India to Afghanistan after Pakistan sealed India off from all the direct East-West overland routes years ago.
The US is aware that Iran has considered offering the Chabahar project to China in the event that India retracts or scuttles the agreement New Delhi signed with Iran and Afghanistan in 2016 to develop the port.
For now, Washington looks willing to allow the parties engaged in the Chabahar port development venture the added time to make the port an essential part of an important new land route to Afghanistan.
by
Kambaiz Rafi November 12, 2018 7:29 PM (UTC+8)
Why a strategic port in Iran was exempted from sanctions
For the US, it makes more sense to allow India to continue developing Chabahar port than for China to 'hijack' yet another strategically important port
Given the port’s importance for Iran and after waiting 15 years for its development, the country may turn to China to save it from India’s complacency. The kind of verve the Chinese have exhibited in building the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the southern section of China’s Belt and Road initiative connecting southwestern China with Pakistan’s Gwadar port, has been conspicuously absent in India’s case in Chabahar. A hefty sum of nearly $50 billion has been put aside by the Chinese for CPEC.
India’s plan for Chabahar, on the other hand, has committed to spend up to a paltry $500 million, which pales in comparison. In case China replaces India as the main stakeholder in developing the port, especially if the latter falls in line with the recent US sanctions or fails to show bigger results, it will put two vital trading posts 80 kilometers apart in Chinese hands in a strategically important region.
The port’s exemption from sanctions could also please India’s Modi as a tokenistic reward for his country’s undying close relations with the US.