Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister was scheduled to attend the Raisina Dialogue being hosted in India between 3rd and 4th March 2024 but cancelled upcoming visit after the release of a promotional video of the upcoming dialogue.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian & Narendra Modi
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That Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif canceled his planned visit to India due to scheduling issues. However, the exact reason for the cancellation was not clear.
It’s possible that there have been more recent developments that led to the cancellation of the visit, but I do not have that information. I recommend checking reputable news sources for updates on the situation.
The Raisina Dialogue or the protests in Iran?
The video, which was a promotional video for the 2024 edition of the Raisina Dialogue showed a brief shot of women from Iran’s recent protests showing outraged Iranian women cutting of their hair in rebellion along with a clip showing footage of Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi. The video shows women cutting their hair in protest after the death of 22-year-old Mahasa Amini by the “morality police” of the state citing “inappropriate” headscarf. Her death triggered a widespread wave of protests across the country.
Which included footage of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi
The Raisina dialogue is an annual multilateral conference on geo-politics and geo-economics held in new Delhi, which is hosted by the Observer Researcher Foundation, an independent think tank, in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs, which involves foreign ministers from more than 20 countries along with leaders from the private sector, the media and academia
The angered Iranian embassy has reached out to the ORF and the Ministry of external affairs objecting to the portrayal of Iran’s president asking to action to be taken to delete the clip from the video. This comes as another challenge among other bumps in India and Iran’s bilateral relations, especially after the sanctions imposed on Iran by the USA post Iran’s withdrawal from the Joint comprehensive Plan of action (JCPOA) in 2018, paving the way for even more challenges pushing away the possibility smooth bilateral relations between India and Iran.
In a recent meeting between Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iran’s envoy to India highlighted Indias “importance” to Iran, further highlighting how Energy and the Chahbahar Port are the common stronghold points of the bilateral relations between both states. Further it is important to note that despite small fallouts between officials of the two nations, India and Iran have a long standing strong bilateral relationship.
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