Return of Good vs Bad Terrorists

In his second term, Donald Trump seems to have embraced the narrative of classifying 'good' and 'bad' terrorists. India can't ignore the trouble such an approach spells

- KP Nayar

cident: Recollections of a Life, the former vice president recalls the deep suspicions which India and Iran harboured against one another when he arrived in Tehran as ambassador in 1990. Such was the trust deficit that even functionaries in the supreme leader's office in Qom were refused visas to visit India.

The conversation between Dixit and Iran's then ambassador in New Delhi, Alireza Sheikhattar, took place after Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao had successfully pushed through his pet policy of disentangling Iran from Pakistan's vice-like grip. Dixit's visit to Tehran in 1992 was a turning point in bilateral relations and made Iran a trustworthy friend of India until Rao's successors, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi, pushed Iran back into Pakistan's embrace. Words and actions by Iran and Pakistan during and after the Israel-US attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities make it clear that Tehran is back in Islamabad's embrace. The clock has been turned back to pre-1992 years.