����ֱ��

WASHINGTON: US sanctions went into effect Monday on a major Indian port project in Iran, as President Donald Trump again showed his willingness to punish longstanding partner New Delhi in aid of his wider regional goals — in this case to pressure Tehran.

The sanctions on the Chabahar port come a day after wide UN sanctions also came back into force on Iran, as Trump, European allies and Israel have all targeted the country over its nuclear program.

The first Trump administration issued a rare exemption in 2018 to allow Indian companies to keep developing Chabahar when the United States imposed sweeping unilateral sanctions on Iran, whose main port at Bandar Abbas is overcapacity.

But much has changed since 2018. Kabul was then still controlled by a government backed by Washington, the European Union and India, who viewed Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan with suspicion, accusing it of having ties to the Taliban.

Chabahar had been billed as an alternate gateway to Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan, which has long controlled the lion’s share of transit trade into Afghanistan.

The Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, as US forces withdrew under a peace deal signed by Trump.

The US president has also broken with decades of US deference to India, in which his predecessors declined to press New Delhi on disagreements as they saw the rising power as a counterweight to China.

Trump, who appeared peeved after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declined to praise him over a ceasefire in a four-day conflict with Pakistan, has imposed major tariffs on India due to its purchases of oil from Russia.

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott announced the end of the sanctions exemption on Chabahar in an earlier statement that said it was effective September 29.

The decision is “consistent with President Trump’s maximum pressure policy to isolate the Iranian regime” and the exemption had been made “for Afghanistan reconstruction assistance and economic development,” Pigott said.

INDIA WEIGHS NEXT MOVE

Under US law, companies including state-run India Ports Global Limited will have 45 days to exit Chabahar or risk having any US-based assets frozen and US transactions barred.

Joshua Kretman, a counsel at law firm Dentons who formerly worked on sanctions at the State Department, said any inclusion of an Indian firm on the sanctioned list “has the potential to create a kind of cascading effect where banks and other companies may not transact with the designated business.”

“If that sanctioned entity operates globally, needs access to major banks or dollar clearing, there is legitimate reason for concern,” he said.

Commenting on the decision, Indian foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said only: “We are presently examining the implications that this revocation has for India.”

Despite the closing of Afghanistan, India last year signed a 10-year contract in which the state-run India Ports Global Limited (IPGL) promised $370 million of investment in Chabahar.

The port remains strategic for India as it lies near the border with longtime adversary Pakistan, in the troubled Balochistan region.

Barely 200 kilometers (125 miles) away on the Pakistani side, China is building a major port in Gwadar, which will give Beijing major new access into the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.

Chabahar “has strategic value for India: regional connectivity with Iran and Afghanistan and the Middle East without being held back” by “friction with Pakistan,” said Aparna Pande, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute.

But India is always careful not to violate sanctions, she said.

“At a time when there is an American administration which is imposing sanctions and tariffs as punitive action, India will likely adopt a wait-and-watch approach,” she said.

India begrudgingly stopped buying Iranian oil after Trump imposed sanctions in his first term.

Nonetheless Kadira Pethiyagoda, a geopolitical strategist who has written on Indian foreign policy, said that India could use Iran ties as “leverage in its dealings with the US, Gulf states and Israel.”

“India may choose to wear the sanctions as part of a broader effort among non-Western Great Powers, including China and Russia, to reduce reliance on the US economy and decouple from Western-controlled financial networks,” he said.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponents appeared to make little progress at a White House meeting aimed at heading off a government shutdown that could disrupt a wide range of services as soon as Wednesday.
Both sides emerged from the meeting saying the other would be at fault if Congress fails to extend government funding beyond a Tuesday midnight deadline .
“I think we’re headed to a shutdown,” Vice President JD Vance said.
Democrats say any agreement to extend that deadline must also preserve expiring health benefits, while Trump’s Republicans insist health and government funding must be dealt with as separate issues.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the two sides “have very large differences.”
If Congress does not act, thousands of federal government workers could be furloughed, from NASA to the national parks, and a wide range of services would be disrupted. Federal courts might have to close and grants for small businesses could be delayed.
Budget standoffs have become relatively routine in Washington over the past 15 years and are often resolved at the last minute. But Trump’s willingness to override or ignore spending laws passed by Congress has injected a new dimension of uncertainty.
Trump has refused to spend billions of dollars approved by Congress and is threatening to extend his purge of the federal workforce if Congress allows the government to shut down. Only a handful of agencies have so far published plans detailing how they would proceed in the event of a shutdown.
The White House released an executive order Monday evening extending the life of more than 20 federal advisory committees through 2027. It remains unclear how these committees — which advise the president in areas including trade and national security — will be funded amid ongoing shutdown uncertainty.
At issue is $1.7 trillion in “discretionary” spending that funds agency operations, which amounts to roughly one-quarter of the government’s total $7 trillion budget. Much of the remainder goes to health and retirement programs and interest payments on the growing $37.5 trillion debt.
Prior to the White House meeting, Democrats floated a plan that would extend current funding for seven to 10 days, according to Democratic sources, which could buy time to hammer out a more permanent agreement. That is shorter than the timeline backed by Republicans, which would extend funding to November 21.
After returning to the Capitol, Schumer told reporters he would not accept a shorter funding bill.
Senate Republican Leader John Thune sought to pile pressure on Democrats by scheduling a Tuesday vote on the Republican bill, which has already failed once in the Senate.
There have been 14 partial government shutdowns since 1981, most lasting just a few days. The most recent was also the longest, lasting 35 days in 2018 and 2019 due to a dispute over immigration during Trump’s first term.
This time health care is at issue. Roughly 24 million Americans who get coverage through the Affordable Care Act will see their costs rise if Congress does not extend temporary tax breaks due to expire at the end of this year.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Congress needs to make those tax breaks permanent now because higher health insurance premiums are being finalized and the new signup period starts November 1.
“We believe that simply accepting the Republican plan to continue to assault and gut health care is unacceptable,” Jeffries said at a Monday press conference.
Republicans say they are willing to consider the issue, but not as part of a temporary spending patch.
“They had some ideas that I actually thought were reasonable, and they had some ideas that the president thought was reasonable. What’s not reasonable is to hold those ideas as leverage and to shut down the government,” Vance said.
Democrats want to energize their voting base ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, when control of Congress will be at stake, and have broadly lined up behind the health care push.
But Democratic aides have privately expressed concerns that a shutdown could create a public backlash if Democrats do not effectively argue their case and instead come off sounding like just being opposed to whatever Trump wants — a stance Republicans like Thune have derided as “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”