External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday said that he has “strongly urged” Iran that attacks on cargo ships must be avoided.

Jaishankar’s statement came after he held a phone call with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi.

“Conveyed our deep concerns at the ongoing hostilities in the region,” Jaishankar said. “Strongly urged that attacks on commercial shipping and seafarers be avoided under any circumstance.”

He added that India condemns “any such attack by any party”.

The external affairs minister also said that he was apprised of Tehran’s “perspective of the current developments and discussions underway” and that New Delhi supports dialogue and diplomacy to ensure peace in West Asia.

In recent weeks, several cargo vessels with Indians on board have been attacked in and around the Strait of Hormuz amid renewed tensions between the United States and Iran.

On Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs told Parliament that 16 Indians, including 10 seafarers, had been killed during the conflict. Eight of the deaths were reported in Oman, four in the United Arab Emirates, two in Kuwait, and one each in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, the government said.

On July 14, New Delhi said that it will establish a dashboard to track every Indian seafarer on vessels operating in the conflict-hit Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. A day later, the government directed shipping companies not to deploy Indian seafarers on vessels travelling through the Strait of Hormuz.

The US and Iran had arrived at an interim agreement on June 15 to stop the fighting and reopen the Strait of Hormuz for commercial vessels. They also held talks in Switzerland aimed at reaching a final peace deal within two months.

However, on July 9, the US military launched fresh attacks on Iran hours after President Donald Trump said that the ceasefire was “over”. This came after Tehran’s alleged attacks on commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has been retaliating by striking sites in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.

In recent weeks, New Delhi has also summoned Russian and Ukrainian diplomats to register a protest about the attacks on cargo vessels in the Black Sea in which Indian citizens were killed.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

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