India lets Iran warship dock the day US sank another off Sri Lanka

India has allowed an Iranian warship to dock as a humanitarian gesture, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Saturday, after the U.S. sank another Iranian navy vessel off neighboring Sri Lanka.

The Lavan docked at India's southern port of Kochi on Wednesday, the same day the U.S. submarine struck Iranian navy frigate Dena, after an urgent request from Tehran, an Indian government source told Reuters.

The Lavan - an amphibious landing vessel, according to the U.S. Naval Institute's online news site - and two other ships "were coming in for a fleet review and then they got, in a way, caught on the wrong side of the events," Jaishankar told the annual Raisina Dialogue event.

"I think we really approached it from the point of view of humanity, of other than whatever the legal issues were," he said. "I think we did the right thing."

At least 87 people were killed in the U.S. ⁠attack on the Dena in Sri Lanka's exclusive economic zone 19 nautical miles off the coast, outside its maritime boundaries.



Reuters