India rebuffs Iran over Kashmir remarks

New Delhi: Rebuffing critical statements by Iran on Kashmir, India yesterday summoned its acting chief of mission and conveyed that such "unpalatable" remarks impinged on the country's territorial integrity.

Y.K. Sinha, joint secretary in charge of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan in India's external affairs ministry, issued a demarche to Iran's Charge d'Affairs Reza Alaei and expressed India's "deep disappointment and regret" over the remarks.

Sinha is understood to have told the Iranian diplomat that such remarks disregarded India's sensitivities over core issues of territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Abstained from voting

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a recent message to Haj pilgrims in Tehran: "Today the major duties of the elite of the Islamic Ummah is to provide help to the Palestinian nation and the besieged people of Gaza, to sympathise and provide assistance to the nations of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Kashmir, to engage in struggle and resistance against the aggressions of the United States and the Zionist regime, to safeguard the solidarity of Muslims..."

To voice displeasure over such remarks, India for the first time abstained on Thursday from voting on a UN resolution on human rights violations in Iran, which was piloted by Canada and other countries. India used to vote against such resolution earlier.

"Our decision on the vote was made after due deliberation," the external affairs ministry said in a calibrated response.

Eighty countries voted in favour of the resolution, 44 against it and 57 countries abstained. The voting pattern has shown a steady increase in the number of countries questioning Tehran's human rights record.