The United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Wendy Sherman, has said India and other countries should “not rush” into doing business with Iran as Washington is yet to work out its nuclear deal with Tehran.
Ms. Sherman, who is in India ahead of the strategic and commercial dialogue between the two countries later this year, was speaking at a panel discussion on bilateral and regional issues at the University of Chicago Centre here on Wednesday.
On the nuclear deal that is still being worked out, Ms. Sherman said India should “hold its horses”.
“…Every country that remains an importer of Iran’s oil and wants to do business and increase its trade with Iran…hold your horses. We are not quite to an agreement yet. We understand that nobody wants to be last in line; everyone wants to be first in line if the sanctions get relieved. But it will take some time even after an agreement for all the implementation to be worked out,” Ms. Sherman said.
She said the U.S. and Iran were on a better trajectory for getting the deal done. “We all believe that this is an opportunity we should not miss, if we can possibly get it done, but there are a lot of details that are to be worked out, it is still not a done deal,” she warned.
On whether sanctions against Iran will be lifted in one go, she said the U.S. has worked out in broad terms how they will be released, what will trigger the release.
She said the U.S. appreciates the solidarity that India has demonstrated on the enforcement of the sanction. “But sanctions are the reason why Iran has come to the negotiating table and so it is important that they stay on until we get this deal.”
