NEW DELHI, Dec 8: India has taken an unusually tough stance with Iran by insisting that its ambassador to New Delhi, S.Z. Yaghoubi, who wants to visit Jammu and Kashmir could do so only if he agreed to meet people selected by the pro-India government in Srinagar, diplomats said on Thursday. The move appears to follow India’s invitation to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz to be the chief guest at its Republic Day military parade on Jan 26. This would be the first visit by a Saudi king to New Delhi in 50 years.

India has allowed, even if they are very few, Pakistani journalists and MPs to visit the disputed region without any of these conditions.

A transition from traditional proximity with Iran in favour of closer ties with Tehran’s main strategic rival — the Arab world — follows a surprising stand New Delhi took at the controversial IAEA meeting in September when it voted with the US-led countries that left Iran shocked.

The Asian Age newspaper also noted on Thursday that New Delhi had taken a position at the IAEA in favour of voting for the Iranian nuclear programme to be referred to the UN Security Council.

Usually informed analysts say the move to come closer to Saudi Arabia may have been prompted by India’s domestic electoral calculations. Iran had openly canvassed for India’s ruling Congress Party led by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in the 1989 elections, but only to see it getting trounced. Then Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati’s interview favouring a Congress victory had become a controversial issue with the opposition.

Today, a more electorally feasible orthodox Sunni constituency deserted the Congress long ago and supports regional satraps like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav in states where the Congress has been completely marginalized.

If the visit to New Delhi by King Abdulaziz, whose largesse directly or indirectly helps run many of the Muslim institutions in India, has any impact on Congress party’s electoral fortunes, the strategic transition from Iran to Saudi Arabia, apart from the widely seen rush to embrace the United States, will have served its purpose.

The Age said that Mr Yaghoubi’s request to visit Jammu and Kashmir was turned down by the ministry of external affairs, which said that he could go only if he agreed to meet leaders of the government’s choice.

“An exchange of communications between the Iranian embassy and the foreign office led to the ambassador withdrawing his request as he was reportedly unhappy with the government’s attitude towards the visit,” the Age said.

No such restrictions are being placed on the travel and itinerary of US diplomats in Jammu and Kashmir who have been regularly meeting ‘the Army, the Kashmiri separatists, religious leaders like the Mirwaiz and elected representatives in the state’.