In the thick of the rising spiral of violence in West Asia, CNN-News18 on Tuesday spoke to each the Iranian and Israeli ambassadors in Delhi on the prevailing scenario between the 2 international locations.
India has an enormous diaspora within the area, which the 2 ambassadors assured to maintain secure.
The Iranian facet mentioned their targets have been achieved by exposing vulnerabilities in Israeli Invincibility and so they don’t need additional escalation.
“We needed to ship a critical message to Israel that Iran is critical about defending its safety and nationwide curiosity. We uncovered Israel’s vulnerability, the Iron Dome propaganda, and invincibility. We needed to show that you just can not strike and escape. Any strike must be retaliated towards. So Israel can not destroy an Iranian consulate and escape,” Iranian ambassador Iraj Ilahi informed CNN-News18.
Israeli ambassador Naor Gilon though said that the Iranian attack would not go unanswered.
“This 350-projectile attack by Iran and its proxies cannot go unanswered. We have to send a message to Iran that a price will have to be paid,” he mentioned.
Israel has at all times been at conflict with Iranian proxies, Gilon mentioned. Over the years, Iran has supported proxies by Houthi, Hezbollah, and others, he added.
Referring to Sunday’s Iranian assault, he mentioned, “Support of the US to Israel is second to none. The success was a joint success. We have our know-how that’s distinctive on the earth. Many international locations help and assist defend us. All the cruise missiles did zero injury; we despatched plane additionally to shoot missiles down. Surface-to-surface missiles being tackled is encouraging. It’s nonetheless 99% although.”
Regarding the strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria, Gilon said, “Israel never took responsibility for that attack. There have been several claims from Iran that Israel has been killing people…Why did not they act in the past?”
Both ambassadors agreed that the stress has handed its peak and whereas the battle and army alert stay in place, possibilities of an imminent full-blown conflict are over.
Iran and Israel each have sturdy ties with India. About 18,000 Indians reside in Israel and greater than 10,000 reside in Iran as professionals, staff, caregivers, and college students. Both Iran and Israel need to have extra Indian join. While the Israeli ambassador mentioned that Indians in Israel are as secure as Israelis within the nation, the Iranian envoy invited extra Indians to go to Iran for research or work.
“There are many Indians wishing to go to Israel. India’s advisory is there so it’s stopped for now. We hope it can begin once more quickly,” Ambassador Gilon mentioned.
Israel has occupied the territory of Palestine, said Ambassador Ilahi. “Israel is killing innocent people. Israel is bombarding innocent people. Israel is demolishing the houses of Palestinians. So Palestinians are resisting this violation, this aggression,” he mentioned. “Yes, we’re supporting them, we don’t deny this, we don’t reject that. But why can we help Palestinians? Because they’ve misplaced their territory. They have misplaced their homeland.”
Ilahi spoke about the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel. “One also needs to talk about the root cause of these events,” he mentioned. “No one talks in regards to the seven a long time of operation towards Palestinians. Also, retaliation by Israel will not be proportionate…I consider that with out the help of the USA, with out the quilt of the USA, with out the help of the UK, France, and different international locations, Israel couldn’t do something.”
Gilon said that many Israelis are still in the captivity of Hamas. “133 people there, some dead some murdered, some abused, sexually harassed,” he mentioned.
He additionally spoke in regards to the concern of civilian casualties in Gaza. “Most infiltration of 30,000 is from Hamas. We have killed about 12,000 terrorists. Hamas needed extra civilian casualties. We tried to maintain the civilian casualties in test,” Gilon said. “Killing of aid workers was by a mistake on our side; action is taken against people involved in the act. We don’t want humanitarian people dead. There is always pressure on Israel. People don’t like pictures of dead civilians and military on the other side. We are trying to minimise that. We evacuated about 200,000 people and we are now bringing them back slowly.”
The Iranian ambassador mentioned Indian crew members detained after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized a cargo vessel for its hyperlinks with Israel can depart at any time when they need. He knowledgeable that there was a lady too within the Indian crew. They haven’t been arrested by Iranians and are held by the captain of the ship, he mentioned.
Speaking on the difficulty, Gilon mentioned, “Is it authentic to do piracy? Even if it (the vessel) is owned by Israel, is it authentic to take it away?”
Delhi and Tehran have been coordinating on the issue of Indian representatives meeting the crew.
first published: April 16, 2024, 18:10 IST
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