IMEC a ‘political project’ aimed at excluding stakeholders, Iranian official says

The India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor was launched on the sideline of the G20 summit in New Delhi in September 2023. File
| Photo Credit: ANI

The India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) is a “political project” that is aimed at excluding regional stakeholders, a senior Iranian official said here. Speaking in a restricted media engagement on Tuesday (March 19, 2025), the official expressed frustration over the slow pace of India’s engagement at Chabahar and warned that Iran would consider it crossing of a “red line” if any part of India’s IMEC-related collaboration with Israel were to pose an “existential threat” to Iran.

“Corridors should be based on necessity, culture and history and not on geopolitical calculations. IMEC is a political project which excludes some parts of the region,” said the official explaining what Iran thinks about the connectivity project that aims to connect India with Europe through Israeli ports and the United Arab Emirates. “Israel will be defeated. That is its destiny,” said the Iranian official indicating the risk factors associated with the IMEC.

The India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor was launched on the sideline of the G20 summit in New Delhi in September 2023 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, U.S. President Joe Biden, President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

But the corridor came under a shadow after Israel got involved in the conflict with Hamas after the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas. Despite the conflict India has made IMEC a part of its recent outreaches to the region as was evident in PM Modi’s latest trip to Paris and Marseilles where French President Macron referred to Marseilles as part of the corridor that is being planned to connect India to Europe.

The senior Iranian official further cautioned that any cooperation with Israel would be considered crossing a “red line” if Tehran perceives such cooperation as posing an “existential threat” to Iran.  However, he reminded that Iran is not worried about the strategic implication of IMEC as it is part of the North-South Corridor project that India is pursuing along with Russia and Central Asian countries which also includes the port of Chabahar. He defended the Houthis of Yemen who are being bombed by the United States saying that the Houthis are victims of a sustained negative media campaign that is projecting them as cruel and reckless. As an example, he took the case of Nimisha Priya, the nurse from Kerala who reportedly received a death sentence in Yemen but was spared the death sentence at the last moment.

He compared the Nimisha Priya case with the United Arab Emirates handing out capital punishment to two Indian nationals in February. “Brutal behaviour and torture are against Persian culture and we are totally against such executions but the duplicity is clear when the Houthis are criticised despite taking a considered position on the Indian nurse whereas two Indians were executed in under the UAE’s justice system,” he said.

The Iranian official also indicated at Tehran’s discomfort over the rise of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) which is carrying out largescale attacks against Pakistani military and security targets. The Baloch nationalists are known to be active also in the Sistan-Balochistan province of Iran that borders Pakistani Balochistan. “Affiliates of this group have spilled over already. We are monitoring BLA actively,” said the official indicating that the BLA is one of the many challenges that face Iran. “We have fifteen neighbours and many of the U.S. military bases are near Iran. So we are aware of the challenges that we are facing,” said the official explaining that Iran is open to finding diplomatic solution to the stalemate that it faces with the U.S. “We are likely to send a response soon to the letter that the US sent us through the good offices of the United Arab Emirates.”