By boycotting a foreign policy conference in New Delhi in February, Iran’s foreign minister may have made latent contradictions in the Indo-Iranian equation even more obvious.  

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian suddenly signaled his displeasure over a promotional video shared by the hosts of the Raisina Dialogue and cancelled his trip set for this week. The annual event organized by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) is held under the auspices of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).  

The video clip in question, promoting the 2023 edition of the Raisina Dialogue, showed Iranian women protestors cutting off their hair in anti-government rallies alongside an image of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. After the ORF refused to remove Raisi’s image from the footage, Tehran informed New Delhi that their foreign minister would not attend.  

Since September, Iran has been rocked by protests after the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. New Delhi has tried to balance its different interests while adjusting its stance to a domestic audience that supports the movement.