The United States has reinstated a sanctions waiver allowing India to operate Iran’s Chabahar Port, weeks after Washington revoked the exemption as part of its so-called maximum pressure campaign on Tehran.
“We have been granted an exemption for a six-month period,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters in New Delhi, confirming the decision that enables India to continue running the strategic port on Iran’s southeastern coast along the Gulf of Oman.
Reuters cited an unnamed Indian official as saying the waiver had taken effect on Wednesday.
The decision follows US President Donald Trump’s recent comments that he hoped to reach a new trade deal with India after years of tension over tariffs and energy purchases from Russia.
Relations between India and the United States, the world's two largest democracies, have soured lately over the imports of discounted Russian oil and Trump's insistence that his intercession averted a nuclear war between India and Pakistan this year.
The waiver restores a 2018 exemption under the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act (IFCA) that had allowed India to develop and use the port for Afghanistan’s reconstruction and regional trade.
The US state department withdrew that waiver effective September 29, warning that anyone operating Chabahar could face sanctions.
The renewed approval lets India proceed with its 10-year agreement signed last year with Tehran to develop and manage the port, viewed by New Delhi as a vital trade corridor linking India with Afghanistan and Central Asia while bypassing Pakistan.
For Iran, whose economy remains under heavy US sanctions, the waiver offers a rare opening.
Chabahar remains one of the few international projects connecting the country to global trade routes.
