This week, US special envoy, Richard Holbrooke quietly expanded his brief ― first, when he invited Vali Nasr, an Iranian American and one of the best known experts on Iran to join him as senior adviser. But second, when the head of Centcom let the cat out of the bag and announced that India i.e. Kashmir would also pop out of Holbrooke's briefcase.

Personally speaking, I have questioned Holbrooke a couple of times on the inevitability of trying to resolve Kashmir. Both times he has assured me, "the 'K' word shall not pass my lips." Neither I, nor I suspect, he, nor any Indian official worth his salt believes that.

But Vali Nasr's appointment is very interesting specially because his erudition and scholarship brings a distinctive quality to his contribution. It indicates clearly that Holbrooke has decided that Iran (which is under Dennis Ross, by the way) should complete the Af-Pak picture. The fact that Iranian, Pakistan and Afghan foreign ministers are henceforth going to meet every month to discuss "security" issues, only confirms that suspicion.

We will not even get into what will certainly be a high-voltage diplomatic jostle in Washington very soon. Wags in the Beltway told me that DC bets were that within the next couple of years, Holbrooke could be knocking on Hillary's door.

But levity apart, Nasr's appointment may vindicate Indian position that Iran has an important role to play in the stabilization of Afghanistan. The US is clearly positioning itself in that direction too, and I suspect we will see more interesting things happening in that sector after the Iranian elections this summer.

To India it means one thing: New Delhi should tighten its ties with Iran. So what if the LNG deal or the gas pipeline doesn't work? In fact, we should now clear up the debris in the relationship and remove these two issues from the bilateral agenda. Instead, we should focus more on economic, transit and Afghanistan issues.

Also Read:

• Obama's Af-Pak Quandary


• Is it Af-Pak? Is it Pak-Af? It's a Fak-Ap!