18 July 2015

Interview: Opportunities and Threats for India After the Iran Deal

By Sanjay Kumar

The Diplomat’s Sanjay Kumar speaks with Sujata Ashwarya Cheema about the Iran deal’s effect on India.

Ever since Iran and international powers inked a nuclear deal, India has been vigorously debating the meaning of the agreement for South Asia. The Diplomat’s Sanjay Kumar spoke to Sujata Ashwarya Cheema, an India-based professor of West Asian Studies, to understand the implication of the deal on India in particular and South Asia in general.

The Diplomat: How do you look at the Iran deal?

Sujata Ashwarya Cheema: Considering the decades of animosity between Iran and the United States and deep-seated suspicion between Tehran and the West in general, the deal reached in Vienna after 18 months of tough diplomatic negotiations is a major breakthrough.

The alternative to the deal would have been no deal, which would have meant further destabilization of an already troubled region.

More importantly, the agreement gives the Islamic Republic an unprecedented opportunity to restructure its economy and leverage its newfound situation to confront challenges of violent extremism in the Middle East. It also gives the United States space and time to fashion a new balance of power in the region, thereby creating a new geopolitical order in the Middle East, post-Iraq withdrawal.

Read the full story at The Diplomat