Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that US warplanes based in Djibouti, a critical maritime gateway between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, had requested to land on March 4, the day IRIS Dena was torpedoed and again on March 8, but Colombo denied permission both times.
Briefing the Parliament on the ongoing US-Iran conflict, Jaishankar said, “The Iranian side has requested permission on February 28 for three ships in the region to dock at our ports. This was accorded on March 1.”
Sources said India had been approached by Iran days before the IRIS Dena incident south of Sri Lanka.
In a formal statement from its Polit Bureau, the party accused the Centre of undermining India’s independent foreign policy and abandoning the nation’s historic anti-imperialist and non-aligned legacy.
The former Rajasthan chief minister shared concerns of Rahul Gandhi on the fallout of the Middle East war.
Perhaps, it is, since Azerbaijan became the unsuspecting, yet eighth Iranian attack target in six days when an Arash-class suicide drome hit the Nakhchivan International Airport and another landed near a school in the Shekerabad village.
At the moment, the Sri Lankan government has not issued any statement about the potential causes.
