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09-03-2026
Bureau Report
NEW DELHI: India has allowed an Iranian warship to dock as a humanitarian gesture, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Saturday, after the US 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 US submarine struck Iranian navy frigate Dena, after an urgent request from Tehran, an Indian government source told media.
US President Donald Trump has said destroying the Iranian navy is one aim of the war he and Israel launched against the Islamic Republic a week ago.
The Lavan, an amphibious landing vessel, according to the US 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 US attack on the Dena in Sri Lanka’s exclusive economic zone 19 nautical miles off the coast, outside its maritime boundaries.
India received the docking request for the Lavan on February 28, the day the Iran war started, the source said late on Friday, adding that the request “was urgent as the vessel had developed technical issues”.
Its 183 crew members have been accommodated at naval facilities in Kochi, said the source, who asked not to be identified citing confidentiality.
The Dena was on its way back from a naval exercise organized by India, according to the drill’s website and Sri Lankan officials.
Sri Lankan authorities said on Friday that they were escorting the Iranian naval ship Booshehr to a harbor on the eastern coast and moving most of its crew to a navy camp near Colombo.
India defended its decision to allow an Iranian warship to dock at one of its Arabian Sea ports amid the US-Israeli war on Iran, saying it acted out of “humanity”.
New Delhi approved the docking of IRIS Lavan at the southern port of Kochi on Wednesday, the same day that the American navy torpedoed and sank an Iranian warship, which was reportedly unarmed, off Sri Lanka.
The warship, IRIS Dena, was sailing back from a multilateral naval exercise hosted by India when it was attacked. The Sri Lankan navy rescued 32 sailors but 87 perished.
Donald Trump declared that the destruction of the Iranian navy a key war goal after US and Israeli forces launched airstrikes on Iran last week, kicking off an escalating regional conflict. IRIS Lavan was allowed to dock after an urgent request from Tehran, Indian government officials said.
“We approached the situation from the point of view of humanity, other than whatever the legal issues were and I think we did the right thing,” foreign minister S Jaishankar said in New Delhi on Saturday.
Jaishankar said Tehran made an urgent appeal to New Delhi on 28 February saying that one of their ships sailing near Indian waters was experiencing problems and requested to enter an Indian port.
“On 1 March, we said you can come in and it took them a few days to sail in and then they docked in Kochi,” the minister said, adding that there were several young cadets aboard the vessel.
The request from Iran “was urgent as the vessel had developed technical issues,” he said.
