ISLAMABAD, Feb 15: Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said on Wednesday that an Indian business delegation would still visit Iran despite a string of bomb attacks blamed on the Islamic republic.

Mr Sharma told AFP during a trade visit to Pakistan that terrorism and trade were ‘separate’ issues, adding that the perpetrators of Monday’s bomb attack on an Israeli diplomat’s car in New Delhi had yet to be identified.

“I am sure that our investigating agencies will identify and bring to justice the perpetrators,” said Mr Sharma.

Israel said Tehran was responsible for the attack which badly injured an Israeli woman, but Mr Sharma insisted the matter had to be dealt with through the legal process.

“Let’s be very, very clear, an act of terrorism has to be dealt as per the law,” he said.

India said last week it would send a ‘huge’ trade mission by the end of this month to Iran to explore business opportunities created by sanctions imposed by the West over the Islamic republic’s disputed nuclear programme.

Iran is India’s second-largest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia, providing around 12 per cent of the fast-growing country’s crude needs.

India says it will abide only by UN sanctions, and will not implement those by individual nations or groupings.

The country has been examining ways to step up trade with Iran amid trouble in settling its oil bills from Iran as a result of the sanctions campaign that is drying up banking routes.

The Islamic republic offers huge potential for export of Indian products and commodities worth more than $10 billion annually, said The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).

“India is a rapidly growing economy with a surging demand for commercial energy, including hydrocarbons,” said secretary general D.S. Rawat.

David Goldfarb, Israeli embassy spokesman in New Delhi, declined to comment on India’s trade mission directly, but he said Iran should be dealt with through sanctions and isolation.—AFP