India allowed an Iranian naval vessel to seek shelter at its ports just days before the ship was sunk by a US submarine during the ongoing war involving the United States and Iran, officials said.
India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar told parliament that Iran had requested permission on Feb 28 for three of its naval ships to dock at Indian ports. The request came on the same day the United States and Israel launched coordinated military operations against Iran.
He said India granted the request on March 1.
The three Iranian vessels — IRIS Dena, IRIS Bushehr and IRIS Lavan — had earlier participated in a multinational naval exercise hosted by India in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam between Feb 15 and Feb 25.
After leaving Indian waters on Feb 25, the ships were believed to have been sailing in international waters when hostilities between the US, Israel and Iran intensified.
Jaishankar said only one of the vessels eventually reached India.
“IRIS Lavan actually docked on 4 March in Kochi. The crew is currently in Indian naval facilities. We believe that this was the right thing to do,” he told lawmakers.
The situation gained international attention after IRIS Dena was struck by a torpedo fired from a US submarine on March 4, causing the warship to sink in international waters off the southern coast of Sri Lanka.
At least 87 sailors were reported killed in the attack, which involved a vessel carrying around 130 crew members.
According to the Indian Navy, the warship was operating about 20 nautical miles west of Galle when it was hit. The location falls within Sri Lanka’s designated search-and-rescue zone.
The strike marked the first military attack outside the Middle East since the US and Israel launched their campaign against Iran, significantly widening the scope of the conflict.
Iran strongly condemned the incident. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the United States had carried out an “atrocity at sea” about 2,000 miles from Iran’s shores and accused Washington of attacking the ship without warning in international waters.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka later confirmed that it had granted sanctuary to IRIS Bushehr on March 5 after the vessel requested permission to dock due to an engine malfunction.
The United States has highlighted the attack as a demonstration of its naval capability. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strike represented the first time since World War II that an American submarine had sunk an enemy ship using a torpedo.
Military analysts noted, however, that while it may be the first such incident involving the United States since 1945, other countries — including the United Kingdom and Pakistan — have used torpedoes to sink vessels in conflicts since then.
IRIS Dena was among roughly 20 Iranian naval vessels reportedly destroyed since US and Israeli forces began coordinated strikes against Iran in the escalating regional conflict.
With inputs from BBC