India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar confirmed that India had permitted Iranian warship IRIS Lavan to dock at a port in Kochi amid an ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel-US Forces, with the US having sunk a similar Iranian ship IRIS Dena close to the port city of Galle in Sri Lanka.
Jaishankar stated that the docking was permitted on the grounds of humanitarian concerns and legal consideration stating that he believed India did the "right thing".
"I think we really approached it from the point of view of humanity, of other than whatever the legal issues were. I think we did the right thing,” he said at the annual Raisina dialogue.
The minister stated that these ships were part of a "fleet review" and got roped into the conflict.
"These ships, because there were two others as well, were coming in for a fleet review, and then they got, in a way, caught on the wrong side of the events," Jaishankar said.
As per reports, the IRIS Lavan warship requested to dock at Kochi on an urgent basis, citing that the vessel had developed "technical issues". India provided docking approval on March 1.
IRIS Dena which was sailing across the Indian ocean was targeted by the US government for attack and was sunk via torpedo leading to the death of a minimum of 87 people onboard. As per reports Sri Lanka's Navy retrieved the bodies and rescued the survivors.
The Sri Lankan government also escorted another Iranian ship named Booshehr and shifted most of the crew to a navy camp in Colombo.
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