India starts process of evacuating citizens from Iran

New Delhi: India has started the process of evacuating its citizens from Iran through Armenia, as the conflict between the Persian Gulf country and Israel escalated.

New Delhi is also working on a plan to evacuate its citizens of India from Israel.

This is not an era of war, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday, repurposing his September 2022 message to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the context of escalating conflict between Iran and Israel.

New Delhi’s diplomatic mission in Tehran shifted the first batch of over 100 citizens of India, mostly students, from different places in Iran to the country’s border with Armenia. Once they enter Armenia, they will be airlifted to India, according to the sources in New Delhi.

Nearly 10000 citizens of India are currently living in Iran. Israel has around 26000 Indians.

The Embassy of India in Tehran is continuously monitoring the security situation and engaging Indian students in Iran to ensure their safety, the Ministry of External Affairs stated in New Delhi on Monday. “In some cases, students are being relocated with the embassy’s facilitation to safer places within Iran. Other feasible options are also under examination. Further updates will follow,” the MEA stated. “Separately, the Embassy is in touch with community leaders regarding welfare and safety.”

New Delhi started working on the plan to evacuate India’s citizens in Iran after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to his Armenian counterpart, Ararat Mirzoyan, on Monday.

“Spoke with FM@AraratMirzoyan of Armenia. Discussed ongoing developments in the region and our close cooperation,” the external affairs minister posted on X.

A source in New Delhi said that Mirzoyan had promised Jaishankar all possible support from the Armenian Government to evacuate Indian citizens from Iran.

“We both expressed concern over the conflicts going on in West Asia and Europe. Their negative impact is not just limited to those regions. We both consider that this is not an era of war. Resolution through dialogue and restoration of stability is the call of humanity,” Modi said after a meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides of Cyprus in Nicosia.

He had earlier conveyed the “this-is-not-the-era-of-war” message to Putin, when he had met him on the sidelines of the SCO summit on September 16, 2022, just a few months after Russia had launched the “special military operations” in Ukraine.