“India Must Convince Israel”: Iran’s Ambassador To NDTV On West Asia Crisis

As the conflict in West Asia is poised to set off a series of dangerous escalations risking full-scale war between Iran and Israel, Iran’s Ambassador to India Iraj Elahi today sought India’s intevention to help bring stability to the region.

“India must take this oportunity to convince Israel to stop its aggression in the reigon and help bring peace and stability,” the Ambassador said, speaking to NDTV.

India, which has friendly ties with both Iran and Israel, has been urging all parties involved in the West Asia crisis to de-escalate tensions and resolve issues through diplomacy and dialogue.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had even spoken to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu after Tel Aviv opened a new front to the conflict with its northern neighbour Lebanon, where it is targeting Hezbollah.

In an exclusive interview to NDTV, the Iranian Ambassador also said that “If Israel stops, we will stop,” adding that “Iran does not want war. We want to have peace in the region, but if our national security is hit, then it leaves us with no other option than to retaliate, and that is precisely what we did.”

He went on to explain that Iran’s ballistic missile attack was “retaliatory move” and was done in response to the “assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil. He was our state guest and was assassinated by Israel in our country. That is a national security issue, and according to our Constitution, we have to deal with such an issue with a retaliatory response.”

The Ambassador also clarified that the missile attack was not for the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. “The issue is getting mixed up here. Our retaliation to Israel was only for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, not for the Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah can take care of itself,” he said.

IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER MAKES RARE SERMON

Earlier in the day, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel “won’t last long” as he backed the Palestinian and Lebanese movements against Israel in his rare Friday sermon. Addressing tens of thousands of supporters at a mosque in Tehran, Khamenei justified its missile strikes on Israel as a “public service”.

A gun kept by his side, the Iran leader declared that Israel would not prevail against Hamas or Hezbollah as chants of “we are with you” from the crowd echoed in the vast mosque grounds.

This was Ayatollah Khamenei’s first public sermon in five years. The last time he did so was in January 2020 after a missile attack on a US army base in Iraq – which was Tehran’s response to the killing of top Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani.

Speaking about the rare incident, Ambassador Elahi said, “He is the Supreme leader of Iran. He is not just the political head of the government, but also the commander-in-chief of the Iranian armed forces – the highest military leader,” implying that his orders are always followed.

‘DEFINING THE CRISIS – THE PROBLEM OF INTERPRETATION’

Ambassador Elahi said that the entire crisis is a “confusion” which is caused due to the problem of how it is defined and how it is interpreted. “Israel defines the crisis as proxies of Iran (Hamas and Hezbollah) targetting Israel. But Iran defines the crisis as Israel’s aggression and occupation of Palestine and Lebanon.”

We believe in the pursuit of truth, said the Ambassador, explaining his stance that “It is Israel that has occupied Palestinian territories both in West Bank and in Gaza. It has also occupied territories in Lebanon, as well as the Golan Heights in Syria. It is them who have invaded and been the aggressors.”

‘RESILIENT IRAN’

There is a perception in the West that Iran has been weakened by US sanctions – that its economy is dwindling and its military not as powerful as it once was, the Ambassador said, adding that “this perception is incorrect. Iran has shown that it is self-reliant and its domestic economy is functioning fine.”

Speaking about how Iran plans to defend its oil reserves or other critical infrastructure from an Israeli retaliatory strike, the Ambassador said, “In the military there is passive and active defence. The response to Israel in terms of a missile attack for violating our sovereignty was an active defensive role. But at the same time, Iran also has a strong defence mechanism in place for an incoming attack. We will defend our interests, installations and assets passively.”

He went on to say that it is because of the sanctions that today Iran has “achieved self-sufficieny in many sectors. It has made Iran self-reliant and resilient. In fact, Iran recently even launched its own satellite. So our economy is anything but weak – and decision-makers in Israel and the US should not feel otherwise and miscalculate.”

Giving an example of Iran’s war with Iraq, the Ambassador said that during that time, “68 countries were against Iran and supporting Iraq. They even sent troops to the war front. US was proving its intelligence inputs, food was going to Iraq from Gulf nations, arms and ammunitions were being provided to Iraq by the Soviet Union. France was heloing Iraq too, but we overcame all that and defended ourselves. We have done it then, we will do it now,” the envoy said.

He also mentioned that Iran is in close consultation with both Russia and China on the West Asia crisis.