Politics
US hurdles cast shadow on India’s Chabahar ambitions
The decision, effective September 29, 2025, is part of Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.
The waiver, issued under the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act (IFCA), had allowed India and other nations to continue working on the port without facing US penalties.
For India, Chabahar holds strategic importance as it offers a trade route to Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan.
In a statement on September 16, the US State Department said the move was “consistent with President Trump’s maximum pressure policy to isolate the Iranian regime.”
It warned that after the revocation takes effect, entities involved in Chabahar Port operations or other IFCA-listed activities could face sanctions.
The department added the step aligns with Washington’s wider efforts to disrupt “illicit financial networks sustaining the Iranian regime and its military activities.”
The decision leaves India in a difficult position. On May 13, 2024, New Delhi signed its first long-term overseas port agreement a 10-year deal with Iran’s Port and Maritime Organisation to operate Chabahar.
Under the deal, Indian Ports Global Limited (IPGL) pledged around $120 million, along with plans to secure $250 million in credit for surrounding infrastructure.
Chabahar is more than a trade hub for India. Initially proposed for development in 2003, it offers access to Afghanistan and Central Asia without reliance on Pakistan and connects to the International North-South Transport Corridor linking India with Russia and Europe.
The port has already been used to send wheat aid to Afghanistan and other vital supplies.
India had managed to keep the Chabahar Port project outside the purview of the sanctions reimposed by President Trump in his first term in 2018.
The Department of State had given ‘exemption’ to certain sanctions concerning the development of Chabahar port and its associated railway, considering its significance to Afghanistan.
But with the US revoking the sanction exemption, India now faces the challenge of protecting its investment and companies involved in the project.
Washington’s latest decision also comes at a sensitive time, as New Delhi tries to balance ties with both the US and Iran while also keeping close relations with Israel and Gulf partners.
Strategically, Chabahar helps India counter China’s growing influence in the Arabian Sea, since the Iranian port lies just 140km from Pakistan’s Gwadar, which is run by Beijing. Losing room to operate here could impact India’s ability to compete in the region.
Bagram Air Base
President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested that he is working to reestablish a US presence at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, four years after America’s chaotic withdrawal from the country left the base in the Taliban’s hands.
Trump floated the idea during a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he wrapped up a state visit to the UK and tied it to the need for the U.S. to counter its top rival, China.
“We’re trying to get it back,” Trump said of the base in an aside to a question about ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
While Trump described his call for the US military to reestablish a position in Afghanistan as “breaking news,” the Republican president has previously raised the idea.
During his first presidency, Trump set the terms for the US withdrawal by negotiating a deal with the Taliban.
The 20-year conflict came to an end in disquieting fashion under President Joe Biden: The US-backed Afghan government collapsed, a grisly bombing killed 13 US troops and 170 others, and thousands of desperate Afghans descended on Kabul’s airport in search of a way out before the final U.S. aircraft departed over the Hindu Kush.
Biden’s Republican detractors, including Trump, seized on it as a signal moment in a failed presidency.
Those criticisms have persisted into the present day, including as recently as last week, when Trump claimed the move emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine in February 2022.
“He would have never done what he did, except that he didn’t respect the leadership of the United States,” Trump said, speaking of Putin.
“They just went through the Afghanistan total disaster for no reason whatsoever.
We were going to leave Afghanistan, but we were going to leave it with strength and dignity.
We were going to keep Bagram Air Base one of the biggest air bases in the world. We gave it to them for nothing.”
It is unclear if the US has any new direct or indirect conversations with the Taliban government about returning to the country.
But Trump hinted that the Taliban, who have struggled with an economic crisis, international legitimacy, internal rifts and rival militant groups since their return to power in 2021, could be game to allow the US military to return.
“We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us,” Trump said of the Taliban.
The president repeated his view that a US presence at Bagram is of value because of its proximity to China, the most significant economic and military competitor to the United States.
“But one of the reasons we want that base is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons,” Trump said.
“So a lot of things are happening.”
While the US and the Taliban have no formal diplomatic ties, the sides have had hostage conversations.
An American man who was abducted more than two years ago while traveling through Afghanistan as a tourist was released by the Taliban in March.
Last week, the Taliban also said they reached an agreement with US envoys on an exchange of prisoners as part of an effort to normalize relations between the United States and Afghanistan.
The Taliban gave no details of a detainee swap, and the White House did not comment on the meeting in Kabul or the results described in a Taliban statement.
The Taliban released photographs from their talks, showing their foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, with Trump’s special envoy for hostage response, Adam Boehler.
Officials at US Central Command in the Middle East and the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office, referred questions about reestablishing a presence at Bagram to the White House.
- Khamenei terms wave of protests “American conspiracy”.
- Iran’s supreme leader says will not spare domestic criminals.
- DPM Dar expresses hope for peace and stability in region.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday accused US President Donald Trump of being responsible for “casualties” during a protest wave in the country.
“We hold the American president guilty for the casualties, damages and accusations he has levelled against the Iranian nation,” he told a crowd of supporters during an address marking a religious holiday.
“This was an American conspiracy,” he said, adding that “America’s goal is to swallow Iran… the goal is to put Iran back under military, political and economic domination”.
He further said authorities “must break the back of the seditionists” after a crackdown on the protest wave.
“We do not intend to lead the country to war, but we will not spare domestic criminals… worse than domestic criminals, international criminals, we will not spare them either,” he added.
“By God’s grace, the Iranian nation must break the back of the seditionists just as it broke the back of the sedition.”
It is pertinent to mention here that more than 3,000 people have died in Iran’s nationwide protests, rights activists said on Saturday, while a “very slight rise” in internet activity was reported in the country after an eight-day blackout.
The protests erupted on December 28 over economic hardship and swelled into widespread demonstrations calling for the end of clerical rule in the country, culminating in mass violence late last week.
Tensions in Iran, however, subsided after three weeks of protests under an internet blackout. The capital Tehran, however, has been comparatively quiet for four days, said several residents reached by Reuters.
Drones were flying over the city, but there were no signs of major protests on Thursday or Friday, said the residents, who asked not to be identified for their safety.
Separately, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar held telephonic conversation with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi today.
They discussed the current situation in Iran and the wider region.
DPM Dar expressed hope for peace and stability, and both sides agreed to continue bilateral consultations on matters of mutual interest.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump thanked Iran’s leaders for cancelling what he said were hundreds of planned executions of protesters after a crackdown.
Taking to his social media platform, he said the mass hangings had been called off and praised Tehran for the move.
US President Donald Trump, whose repeated threats to act had included a vow to “take very strong action” if Iran executed protesters, said Tehran’s leaders had called off mass hangings.
“I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (Over 800 of them), have been cancelled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!” he posted on social media.
- Venezuela’s Machado gave her Nobel medal to Trump.
- Donald Trump says he intends to keep the medal.
- Original laureate recorded in history as prize recipient.
OSLO: The Nobel Peace Prize remains inseparably linked to the person or organisation that won it, though the medal can be given away, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Friday, a day after last year’s winner gave her medalto US President Donald Trump.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gave her medalon on Thursday to Trump, who thanked her for it. The White House released a photo of Trump and Machado, with Trump holding up a gold-coloured frame displaying it, and a White House official said Trump intends to keep it.
Machado’s award also consists of a diploma and 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.19 million).
“Regardless of what may happen to the medal, the diploma, or the prize money, it is and remains the original laureate who is recorded in history as the recipient of the prize,” the award body said in a statement.
“There are no restrictions in the statutes of the Nobel Foundation on what a laureate may do with the medal, the diploma, or the prize money. This means that a laureate is free to keep, give away, sell, or donate these items,” it added.
‘Inseparably linked’
The medal and the diploma are physical symbols confirming that an individual or organisation has been awarded the prize, said the five-strong award committee.
“The prize itself – the honour and recognition – remains inseparably linked to the person or organisation designated as the laureate by the Norwegian Nobel Committee,” it said.
The committee, which did not refer to Trump and Machado by name in its statement, said it does not comment on a laureate’s statements, decisions or actions after the prize is announced.
It was not the first time a Nobel laureate has given away the medal. In 1943, Nobel literature laureate Knut Hamsun gave his to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
In 2022, Nobel Peace laureate Dmitry Muratov sold his medal for $100 million to raise money for the UN children’s fund Unicef to help Ukrainian refugee children.
In 2024, the widow of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan donated his 2001 Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma to the UN office in Geneva.
US President Donald Trump purchased about $100 million in municipal and corporate bonds from mid-November to late December, his latest disclosures showed, including up to $2 million in Netflix and Warner Bros Discovery bonds just weeks after the companies announced their merger.
Financial disclosures posted on Thursday and Friday showed the majority of Trump’s purchases were municipal bonds from cities, local school districts, utilities and hospitals.
But he also bought bonds from companies including Boeing, Occidental Petroleum and General Motors.
The investments were the latest reported assets added to Trump’s expanding portfolio while he is in office.
It includes holdings in sectors that benefit from his policies, raising questions about conflicts of interest.
For example, Trump said in December that he would have a say in whether Netflix can proceed with its proposed $83 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, which faces a rival bid from Paramount Skydance.
Any deal to acquire Warner Bros will need regulatory approval.
A White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said on Friday that Trump’s stock and bond portfolio is independently managed by third-party financial institutions and neither Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested.
Like many wealthy individuals, Trump regularly buys bonds as part of his investment portfolio.
He previously disclosed at least $82 million in bond purchases from late August to early October.
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