US lawmakers paranoid of Indo-Iranian discussions have been nervous about continued interactions between the two nations at variance with stated American positions. US lawmakers have taken extreme positions on Iran even holding captive Iranian diplomats based on speculative information and authorizing attacks on Iranian nationals suspected of anti-American activities. However, to its credit, the US Administration has pointed out to them that since even NATO allies such as France has large-scale relations with Iran, expecting a friendly nation to follow the American line is “disingenuous.” But New Delhi has to be prepared for increased pressure from Washington to abandon if not tone down relations with Tehran.

With the US Presidential campaign already in motion, New Delhi should also expect grandstanding demands from some quarters in the US to abrogate the Indo-US Civilian Nuclear deal because of India’s continued relations with Iran. However, barring extremists elements in the US, the majority of the US lawmakers will not adopt such a position unless relations between Washington and Tehran take a deep turn for the worse taking the region down with it. While New Delhi needs to be empathetic to American concerns on the safety of their troops with running Shia revolt and Sunni insurgency in Iraq. However, it cannot be tied down with an inconclusive war that it did not want a part of.

At the same time, New Delhi should also realize the brinkmanship approach of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is causing a major split in Sunni-Shia relations. In a recent television interview, Saudi Arabia King Abdullah accused Iran of trying to “promote Shiaism” and warned that the “dangers” that Iran “could fall into” will fall on the whole world.

Therefore, the right strategy for India is to develop a person-agnostic relationship with Iran and a broad non-country specific relationship with the US to deal with global issues. As energy starved nation, India needs to diversify its energy sources that could include natural gas from Iran and Myanmar, oil from West Asia and Russia, and nuclear energy with the support of the US. Of course, the long-term strategy is for the nation to develop indigenous technologies in parallel that will reduce dependence on other nations.