India has dismissed reports claiming that the United States was using Indian ports to launch strikes against Iran, calling the allegations 'baseless and fabricated'. The response from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) came after former US Army colonel Douglas Macgregor, during an interview with the US-based channel One America News Network (OAN), suggested that the US Navy is "using Indian naval bases to attack Iran amidst the ongoing Iran-US conflict."
US using Indian naval bases to attack Iran?
In the interview, Macgregor claimed that American naval infrastructure had been severely damaged, forcing the US to depend on Indian ports. "All of our bases have been destroyed. Our harbour installations are destroyed. We are actually having to fall back on India and Indian ports, which is less than ideal; that is what the navy says," he said.
Rejecting the remarks, the MEA's official Fact Check unit described the claims circulating on OAN as "fake and false." In a post on X, the ministry cautioned against spreading "baseless and fabricated" statements regarding India's role in the conflict.
US-Israel-Iran war
The US and Israel launched the war on February 28, targeting Iran's leadership, missile arsenal, and nuclear program while suggesting that toppling the government is a goal. But the exact aims and timelines have repeatedly shifted, signalling an open-ended conflict. The war entered its sixth day on Thursday, with no signs of easing tensions.
The war has killed more than 1,000 people in Iran, more than 70 in Lebanon, and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. It has disrupted the supply of the world's oil and gas, snarled international shipping, and stranded hundreds of thousands of travellers in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump praised the US military on Wednesday for "doing very well on the war front, to put it mildly." Fellow Republicans in the US Senate stood with Trump on Iran as they voted down a resolution seeking to halt the war.
Iran fired on Bahrain, Kuwait, and Israel as the conflict spiralled. Turkey said NATO defences intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran before it entered Turkey's airspace.
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