Trump Wants Sharif to Host Talks But Iran Cites 'Zero Trust'; Reliance Buys Iran Oil With US Nod; Pankaj Mishra on the Authority of Thought and the Darkness of Our Times
For subscribers: After Pegasus, Israel now exports Black Cube, understanding the possible outcomes of war against Iran, UP doubles down on ‘Iftar on Ganges’ case, Further tightening of FCRA on anvil
A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by Sidharth Bhatia, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Seema Chishti, MK Venu, Pratik Kanjilal and Tanweer Alam | Contributing writers: Kalrav Joshi, Anirudh SK
If you like our work and want to support us, then do subscribe. Sign up with your email address by clicking on this link and choose the FREE subscription plan. Do not choose the paid options on that page because Stripe – the payment gateway for Substack, which hosts The India Cable – does not process payments for Indian nonprofits.Our newsletter is paywalled but once a week we lift the paywall so newcomers can sample our content. To take out a fresh paid subscription or to renew your existing monthly or annual subscription, please click on the special payment page we have created – https://rzp.io/rzp/the-india-cable.Snapshot of the day
March 24, 2026
Siddharth Varadarajan
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump spoke on the phone today, their first conversation since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Modi’s readout suggests the likely purpose of Trump’s call was to encourage India to join the chorus of 22 countries who have endorsed the American view that reopening the Hormuz Strait is the most pressing goal – more important than stopping the bombing of apartments and civilian infrastructure or the targeted assassination of leaders, or the US-Israeli aggression per se.
While Trump has not said anything in public about his call with Modi, he did make it a point to repost Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s offer to host ‘meaningful and conclusive talks for a comprehensive settlement of the ongoing conflict’.
Amidst reports of Steve Witkoff – Trump’s trouble-shooter (or trouble-maker) – heading to Islamabad, there is no indication that any notable Iranian interlocutor will arrive there to meet him. Indeed, a tweet by the Iranian embassy in Pakistan on Tuesday afternoon appears to have made Tehran’s position quite clear:
“There [is] zero trust after two rounds of strike amidst talks.
With bullying and totalitarian literature, there's no chance.
Iran regards US request for negotiations as another attempt for deception to recover, find out loophole and synapsis to aggravate the strikes again.”
Here are six reasons why Pakistan’s emergence as an interlocutor for Washington is a strategic setback for India.
Reliance has bought five million barrels of Iranian oil now that Washington has lifted sanctions on it, Nidhi Verma and Siyi Liu report for Reuters, marking the first Indian purchase of crude from the country since the first Trump administration sanctioned it in May 2019. They cite one source as saying that the oil was purchased from National Iranian Oil at a premium of roughly $7 per barrel compared to ICE Brent futures; it is not clear when the
