New Delhi, March 7 -- India said it permitted an Iranian naval vessel IRIS Lavan to dock at one of its ports just days before a frigate from the Persian Gulf nation was sunk by a United States submarine.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said allowing the Iranian ship to dock when it was facing hurdles "was the humane thing to do" at the time. He added that the vessel had been scheduled to arrive for a fleet review but had ended up being "caught on the wrong side of events"

"I too support UNCLOS and international law... We got a message from the Iranian side that one of the ships, which presumably was closest to our borders at that point of time, wanted to come into our port. They were reporting that they were having problems... O...