The day after US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, aiming to end the 12-day struggle, which reached the brink to West Asia, speaking with Israel’s Ambassador to India, Reven Azer, Divya A and Flora Swain. Edited Excerpt:
There was a lot of confusion after President Trump’s announcement of the Trust between Iran and Israel.
The ceasefire was kept in coordination with Israel. The only problem was that it was believed to be implemented after an hour, the Iranians fired two ballistic missiles in Israel, and Israel decided to retaliate. At that time, President Trump was worried … We are very grateful to him not only for his role in helping Israel but also his role in broker. He was worried that the ceasefire may collapse, and therefore, he called our Prime Minister and asked him to withdraw retaliation, which we did.
So now we have a ceasefire that is stable, and we are going back to normal life in Israel after 12 days.
Do you think Israel has achieved what to do?
Absolutely. We have terminated Iran’s nuclear program very seriously, as not only we actually attacked its facilities with Americans, but we killed dozens of nuclear activity places, the most important thing that is an atomic equipment that was assembled by an atomic equipment. This really assures us that Iranians will not be able to build an nuclear weapon, for at least several years.
Your views on President Trump as an intermediary, because somewhere in the middle, he expressed disappointment.
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There was some frustration because they expected the ceasefire would easily effective, and it did not happen. So it required additional attention, and he was impatient to achieve the result. Finally, we have managed to achieve results.
Do you think it will force Iran’s hand to leave its nuclear program?
There are efforts to reduce the achievement of Israel. But it is very clear that we have achieved our purpose, that Iranians have not enabled us to stop taking action, that they are exposed and weak. And if they try to reorganize the military nuclear program, we have to work again.
And so we support returning to diplomacy. Unfortunately, after decades of efforts, the Iranians refused to avoid having nuclear military programs, including President Trump’s efforts.
Do you think the talks that the US and Iran were holding on the nuclear program can still move forward, as Iran has never left the table.
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Negotiations can be important, but if they lead to the result they are important. And if you are part of the dialogue, they are serious about achieving the result. Iran was cheating the international community, using the opportunity to talk while running in nuclear weapons. If it stops, we have more possibility of more stability in the future.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often advocated diplomacy, saying that solutions cannot be found on the battlefield. PM Modi and PM Netanyahu made a call one day when the struggle started. What was about the conversation?
Well, Prime Minister Netanyahu introduced Prime Minister Modi why we have decided to go to this operation. We are happy that Prime Minister Modi got a call and he listened to our presentation and our inspiration carefully. Most of the leaders of the world including our Indian friends understand this. And Israel is not in the business of starting a war for violence. We are a democracy and we only act in a situation in which we are left without any option.
When India operated Operation Sindoor, it demanded to pursue his ideas about his friends around the world … Israel was one of the countries that supported India’s action and India’s status.
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We have supported India’s right to self -defense. We are happy that the ceasefire was restored. We are coming back to promote our economic agenda. We want to sign a mutual investment agreement with India. We are in advanced talks on it.
We would like to start a conversation on a business deal. We are hosting more than 40,000 Indian guest workers. And we are working to increase our cooperation on technology. So our hands are full. Here (in India) and in both West Asia, the struggle that has been established is a great jumpstart to return to the things that we are good – to promote prosperity and peace.
How do you see things from here? What is further for Israel, Israel-Iran and Israel-US?
We have to bring back our hostages in Gaza and make sure that Hamas is not again. And we are going to implement a combination of military pressure and diplomacy to bring all our hostages. With Iran, we hope that diplomacy will be successful in creating a verification system to ensure that Iran does not reorganize its plans for destruction. And we will work closely with our colleagues around the world.
(Tagstotransite) India Israel Relations