Examine the impact of prolonged US-Iran conflict since 2026 on India's foreign policy options in West Asia.

The Strait of Hormuz carries about 20 million barrels of oil a day — roughly a fifth of global petroleum consumption [1]. The US-Iran war since February 2026 has repeatedly disrupted this artery, compressing India's traditional West Asia strategy of quiet, all-sides engagement into a series of harder choices.

Energy security under strain

• India's crude import dependence touched a record 88.7% in 2025-26 [2], with a large share transiting Hormuz.
• The July 2026 attacks hit three merchant vessels; daily transits fell sharply from the usual 130 ships and about 6,000 seafarers were stranded, prompting the IMO to urge "maximum restraint" [3]. Freight and war-risk insurance costs rise directly with each escalation.
• Response: accelerated basket diversification (Russia, West Africa, the Americas) and deeper strategic petroleum reserves.

Narrowed strategic autonomy

• India must simultaneously protect its defence-technology and trade partnership with the US and its civilisational and connectivity stake in Iran — a balance that a naval blockade and fresh sanctions make harder to sustain quietly.
• The 10-year Shahid Beheshti terminal contract at Chabahar (IPGL-PMO, May 2024), India's gateway to Afghanistan and Central Asia via the INSTC [4], becomes vulnerable to secondary-sanction risk.
• The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), routed through the Gulf, Jordan and Israel [5], cannot advance while the region is at war.

Diaspora and regional diplomacy

• Around 9 million Indians live in Gulf states [6]; their safety, remittances and contingency evacuation (the Vande Bharat precedent) are first-order concerns.
• Equally, India's credibility with both Washington and Tehran creates space for issue-based humanitarian and freedom-of-navigation diplomacy, alongside hedging Gulf partners.

The conflict has therefore raised India's costs without removing its advantages. A calibrated course — de-hyphenated engagement with Iran, Israel and the Gulf, energy-source diversification, sanctions-insulated payment and connectivity arrangements, and support for IMO-led de-escalation — would let India protect its interests while contributing, consistent with its stated commitment to peaceful dispute settlement, to restoring stability in its extended neighbourhood.