Iran labels Canadian Navy a terrorist entity in retaliation for IRGC ban
Tehran: Iran designated the Royal Canadian Navy as a terrorist organisation, escalating tensions with Ottawa nearly a year after Canada blacklisted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
In a statement issued on Tuesday by the Iranian foreign ministry, Tehran said the move was taken “within the framework of reciprocity” in response to Canada’s decision to label the IRGC as a terrorist group in 2024. The ministry described Ottawa’s action as being “contrary to the fundamental principles of international law,” and announced that the Canadian naval force would now be treated in the same manner. No details were provided on the practical consequences of the designation.
Canada formally listed the IRGC as a terrorist organisation on June 19, 2024, a step that barred its members from entering the country and prohibited Canadians from engaging in any dealings with the force or its affiliates. The decision also enabled authorities to seize any assets linked to the IRGC or its members held within Canada, as reported by AFP news.
Ottawa has defended the action by claiming that the IRGC consistently violates human rights and threatens the international rules-based order. A major contributing element to the designation, according to Canadian officials, was the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 in January 2020. Shortly after taking off from Tehran, the plane was shot down, killing all 176 passengers, including 85 nationals and permanent residents of Canada. The aircraft was wrongly designated as a hostile target, according to the IRGC, which later admitted responsibility.
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India should create strategic buffers to navigate 'most difficult' energy shock: CEA Nageswaran
New Delhi (PTI): Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Saturday said India needs to create strategic buffers in the face of the "most difficult" energy shock that the country is facing amid the West Asia crisis.
Nageswaran also said the rising prices of fertiliser and petroleum products globally due to the crisis will make it challenging to achieve the 4.3 per cent fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal, while below normal monsoon and pass-through of higher energy prices could lead to "potential inflation spike".
He also said India has employment challenge emanating from AI, and there is a need to ensure that IT sector becomes more competitive and not lose jobs to AI, and instead create jobs that use AI within the IT sector or in other services.
Speaking at the ICPP Growth Conference organised by the Ashoka University, Nageswaran said the current account deficit (CAD) in the current fiscal could rise to over 2 per cent of GDP, from less than 1 per cent in FY'26.
"The ... priority for us is to create strategic buffers. This energy shock is the most difficult one compared to any other previous energy shock in terms of energy lost as a percentage of total global energy supply, not just oil, including gas.
"And we also need to use this occasion to think about other areas where we are vulnerable in terms of import dependence, nickel, tin, and copper. We need to build strategic buffers if we have to make a shot at manufacturing and becoming indispensable," Nageswaran said.
Since the beginning of the war in West Asia on February 28, crude oil prices soared to a four-year high of USD 126 per barrel on Thursday, from about USD 73 level before the war.
Stating that geopolitics will compel policymakers to be nimble and flexible and shed old model of thinking, Nageswaran said India is better prepared than many other countries to deal with the crisis because of the fiscal leeway that the country has due to lowering of fiscal deficit ratio to 4.4 per cent of GDP in FY'26.
Nageswaran said the West Asia conflict is more of a price shock than supply shock for India as the government is managing the supply side deftly.
"This particular conflict, which is going to be on a low simmer or a high flame situation, whatever it is, it is going to be there with us in some form or the other because the military conflict may be over, but the strategic conflict is well and truly alive. It will be so for some time," Nageswaran said.
He said the conflict has four channels of shock: price and supply shock, trade impact, sticky logistics costs and remittance shock.
India imports 60 per cent of its LPG usage and of that, 90 per cent flows through the now closed Strait of Hormuz.
Nageswaran said the pass-through of high global energy prices would have to be a "balancing act". He said some pass-through is already happening in commercial LPG, and the levy of export duty on diesel and ATF.
The government has cut excise duty on petrol and diesel to shield customers from the impact of the rise in petroleum prices. "We are coming around to arriving at a certain modus vivendi with respect to burden-sharing between the fiscal policy side, inflation, households and the oil marketing companies. So it has to be a balancing act," Nageswaran said.
