Gulf War: India Missed Diplomatic Edge Against Pakistan

Iran was the chance to arrange a concert of nations, to actually be a Vishwaguru.
Instead, we are watching from the sidelines as Pakistan, the same country that is apparently still at war with Afghanistan, hosts talks between US-Israel and Iran.
The irony is hard to miss, points out Amberish K Diwanji.

IMAGE: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif greets US Vice President J D Vance in Islamabad, April 11, 2026. Photograph: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Office/Handout via Reuters

• India missed an opportunity to diplomatically isolate Pakistan despite tensions with Afghanistan and its role in brokering Iran ceasefire talks.
• New Delhi’s delayed response to Iran developments and perceived tilt towards Israel reflected ideological bias over strategic foreign policy interests.
• India faces complex balancing between Iran, Israel, US, and Gulf nations due to energy dependence, diaspora concerns, and China-Pakistan dynamics.

Two wars in India’s extended neighbourhood are on hiatus.

In the first, the Iran war, which has been noticed by all, a two-week ceasefire, brokered by Pakistan, was enforced on April 8.

Both Iran and the US are claiming victory (Israel only grudgingly accepted the ceasefire, and not before firing missiles into southern Lebanon).

The second war that few have noticed, thanks to the intense media coverage of the Iran war, also appears to be petering out.

This is the Pakistan-Afghanistan war, which began before the Iran war, and saw Pakistan air force strike against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Pak-Afghan war provided India with the opportunity to isolate Pakistan, a chance to drive a wedge between these two neighbours, who, when aligned earlier, had been the source of much anguish to India over the last few decades.

India did condemn the Pakistan strikes, but surely it could have done more to generate attention to this cross Durand Line attacks. Why it did not needs to be answered.

When the Israel-US war against Iran broke out, India could have taken a moral position and offered to mediate as close friends of all three nations concerned.

India has good relations with the US (aimed against China), with Israel (aimed against Islamic terrorism), and with Iran (aimed against Pakistan).

This was the chance to arrange a concert of nations, to actually be a Vishwaguru.

Instead, we are watching from the sidelines as Pakistan, the same country that is apparently still at war with Afghanistan, hosts talks between US-Israel and Iran. The irony is hard to miss.

So, what went wrong? In one sentence: Ideological inclinations that are patently against India’s national interest.

As soon as war began, India did not condemn the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, doing so a few days later.

IMAGE: Shehbaz Sharif meets Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf in Islamabad, April 11, 2026. Photograph: WANA/Handout/Reuters

India’s Tightrope In Iran War

No doubt, the latest Iran war is a difficult situation to negotiate. On one side of the war is Iran, a country that has been sanctioned against by most of the world for allegedly pursuing nuclear weapons.

As a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is committed to not building nuclear weapons.

But for long, Israel and the West believe Tehran has been clandestinely building nuclear weapons.

In May 2019, heeding the international sanctions, India too stopped purchasing oil from Iran.

India is also clear that Iran must abide by its commitments to the NPT.

On the other side is Israel, US, and Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates).

India has been growing closer to the US since the beginning of this century, with both worried about the implications of a rising China.

For New Delhi, there is the added dimension of China’s friendship with and support to Pakistan, especially when dealing with India.

Then there is the issue of the 10 million Indians living in the Gulf countries and the massive import of oil and gas from the Gulf countries.

Their welfare is important and the reduced flow of oil and gas imports hit India hard. In such a situation, the best outcome was never supporting one side against another, but pushing for peace.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed by his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu and wife Sara on his arrival at the Ben Gurion airport in Israel. photograph: @narendramodi/X

India’s ties with Israel have been growing, primarily in the defence and agriculture sectors.

There is much for India to gain through closer ties with Israel, and it is to the credit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he has forged ahead, since better ties are beneficial to India.

Simultaneously, India has no choice but to keep strong ties with the Arab nations. After all, India needs oil, and the Jewish promised land does not produce any oil. Foreign policy is not either or as much as this and that!

Thus, it would appear that the latest move of quickly supporting Israel is less tactical and driven more by ideology. Hindutva ideology supporters dream of an alliance with their Jewish counterparts, the Zionists.

Both are against the Muslims of their respective regions. For many of them, a Jewish-Hindu alliance against Muslims is a natural in a world driven by a clash of civilisations.

Saudi-Pakistan Defence Pact Impact

Yet, the irony is hard to miss. Aligned with Israel and the US are the Sunni Muslim Gulf countries, to fight against another Muslim country.

Subtlety matters: Iran is mostly Shia and of Aryan ethnicity; the Gulf states are mostly Sunni and of Semitic ethnicity.

In fact, so profound are the differences between the Gulf countries and Iran that last September, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a defence agreement, stating that an attack on one would be considered an attack on both.

The Saudi-Pakistan agreement puts limits on how close the two can get, and gives India the chance to grow closer to Iran at Pakistan’s expense.

A friendly Iran to Pakistan’s west, a belligerent Afghanistan to its north… India has leverage over Pakistan, the kind of which it has not had in decades.

But for this to happen, India needs to calibrate its position with Tehran, not blindly support Israel (or any other country) against Iran. Sadly, we missed the chance to do that.

During the last Israel-Iran war of June 2025, New Delhi urged peace and negotiations.

A few weeks later, India refused to support a resolution condemning Iran at a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting, even as Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar was in touch with leaders in Iran. It was a fine balancing act that was worth repeating.

This time, in choosing one side over the other because it is ideologically better, the government is jeopardising New Delhi’s ability to manoeuvre for India’s best interest.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff