Sandeep Madkar asked : How the US factor is affecting India-Iran relations? Can India have good relations with both of them simultaneously?

Meena Singh Roy replies: Yes, the US-Iran relations are impacting on the India-Iran relations indirectly. Even if the US-EU bilateral sanctions against Iran are not mandatory for India to follow, they do impact on India's relations with Iran. Because of the US sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors, India is finding it difficult to make the payments for the crude oil which it buys from Iran. Moreover, the private sector, which has higher stakes in doing business with the US, is gradually pulling out of Iran as they don't want to be black-listed in the US. Under these circumstances, it would be really difficult for India to balance its policy with respect to Iran and the US.