General Kasil Sulemani, a senior officer in the Iran army, has been shot dead on the instructions of President Donald Trump. This has led to tensions between the US and Iran. Many international experts are describing the current situation as the worst phase in recent years and due to this, global instability is believed to be increasing. India is also closely monitoring the situation.
In the event of a war between the US and Iran, not only can India face many challenges financially, but it can also be a lot of effort to reconcile between these two countries. Last month, in December 2019, Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar visited the US and Iran.
In the meeting of Foreign and Defense Ministers between India and the United States, when the US was ready to give exemption for Iran's Chabahar port. It was believed that he was not giving much attention to the relations between Iran and India. However, India has stopped buying oil from Iran completely. Despite this, fuel is important for India for many reasons. The biggest reason for this is that Iran will be needed to stop Pakistan's influence in Afghanistan.
According to information received by the US Defense Ministry Pentagon, Soleimani was killed on Friday at Iraq's international airport. Sulaimani is believed to have played a role in the attack on the US embassy in Iraq two days earlier. Condemning this, Iran's Foreign Minister Javed Zarif has said that this is America's international terrorism as General Soleimani was leading the fight against terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda and ISIS. He has further said that America will be responsible for whatever happens now.
The situation in the Gulf region has been tense since May 2018. Then the US canceled the peace deal with Iran and announced a new ban on it. But after the death of Soleimani, the situation is expected to worsen. The first impact of this is said to be on crude oil prices.
In the last one month, the price of crude oil was already rising due to the situation of war. This situation can be extremely challenging for an already sluggish Indian economy. India still purchases 84 percent of its total crude oil from outside. With the opening of the international market on Friday, the price of crude oil is reported to increase by 4 percent. This is the largest increase recorded on a single day in the last four months. Crude oil is currently priced at $ 68-69 per barrel. The large increase in it could spoil India's balance of payments, which is also a threat to inflation.