US sinking of Iranian warship: Why It also matters for India?
The frigate had been sailing home from an East Indian port, following a visit where it was welcomed by the Indian Navy last month. Over 80 people have been confirmed killed.
The US submarine sinking of an Iranian warship in international waters has raised uneasy questions for key White House partner New Delhi, an analyst told CNN, as the vessel was destroyed shortly after leaving an Indian port where it had completed joint naval exercises.
Sri Lanka's foreign minister identified the vessel as the IRIS Dena. The frigate had been sailing home from an East Indian port, following a visit where it was welcomed by the Indian Navy last month. Over 80 people have been confirmed killed.
The attack took place in the Indian Ocean, thousands of kilometres away from the Gulf, where US and Israeli forces are striking Iran, and Tehran is retaliating with missile and drones.
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It was the first time a US attack submarine had used a torpedo to sink a combat ship since 1945.
While the incident took place in international waters, it will likely rankle New Delhi because the attack took place in an area of ocean that India views as its backyard and it had only finished hosting the crew.
"The sinking of the IRIS Dena just hours after it left Indian waters is a massive blow to New Delhi's regional credibility," said Sushant Singh, a lecturer in South Asian Studies at Yale University.
He noted that while the Iranian ship was in international waters, it was "going from an Indian fleet review, through what is not an active war zone, and definitely an area of India's influence."
Singh said, "That is why it crosses a thick red line."
India's "non-negotiables" are "protecting commerce and energy routes, avoiding entanglement in US–Iran escalation, and preventing any normalisation of third‑party kinetic actions so close to its maritime periphery," he added. "All of them have been challenged by the US naval action," Singh said.
India hasn't publicly commented on the incident. CNN has reached out to its foreign ministry and navy for a response.
Iran's foreign minister has decried the deadly US torpedo attack on an Iranian warship as an "atrocity," which he warned the US will come to regret.
At least 87 people were killed, and a number remaining missing, after the IRIS Dena sank off the coast of Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
