Khamenei’s indecent statement on Kashmir
During his second Eid-ul-Fitr sermon delivered at the Khomeini Mausoleum on 26th June, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei dwelt on the “many wounds inflicted on the body of the Islamic world”.
Iran’s supreme leader, has reportedly mentioned Kashmir, equating the situation in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir with that of Yemen and Bahrain as requiring the support of “all Muslim nations”.
On June 26 he posted on his website, “Everyone should openly support people of Yemen, Bahrain and Kashmir: Ayatollah Khamenei”. The post on his official website was a report on the speech of the supreme leader on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr.
Last year, Khamenei also mentioned Kashmir in a conversation with the visiting Slovenian president, Borut Pahor.
7 years before In July and November of 2010, Khamenei raised the need for the Muslim community to support the “struggle” in Kashmir – and put it in the same category as Gaza and Afghanistan.
Besides the Supreme Leader, Iran’s foreign ministry had on September 18, 2010 criticised the Indian government for firing on a protest by Kashmiris on the alleged burning of a copy of the Quran in the United States.
After the November 2010 speech, India had summoned the acting Iranian ambassador in New Delhi to lodge a protest. India subsequently abstained on a resolution on human rights violations in Iran at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The spurt in Iran’s rhetoric on Kashmir in 2010 could perhaps be seen in the background of Iranian concerns over the India-US civil nuclear deal. In 2008 and 2009, India had voted against Iran in the International Atomic Energy Agency. In November 2010, US president Barack Obama visited India and gave a speech in the Indian parliament where he raised the Iranian nuclear issue.
Trump’s participation and his direct and forceful targeting of Iran at the Riyadh Summit held last month, which was essentially a gathering of the leaders of Sunni countries, has exacerbated tensions in the region. Following the summit Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE and Bahrain have cut off ties with Qatar which has good relation with Iran.
Modi has sought to deepen ties with all the principal countries of West Asia. He has visited Saudi Arabia and the UAE as well as Iran. It is a fact that India’s interests lie collectively in the Arab states, especially those of the Arab peninsula.
Khamenei’s Kashmir reference may have been slightly motivated to pressure India on current projects and pro-US and pro- Saudi policies, and if this is so, it should not impact negotiations with them.