Israel launched air strikes on Iran after an “operational opportunity” that arose last week, shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi departed from the country, Reuven Azar, Israel’s Ambassador to India, told The Indian Express. Azar added that while Prime Minister Modi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talked about regional development during the visit, the Israeli leadership did not know when the “the right moment” for these strikes on Iran would be undertaken.
During PM Modi’s visit, India and Israel elevated their ties to a “Special Strategic Partnership” and signed 17 pacts. Two days later, Israel and the United States launched a preemptive strike against Iran.
“It took about two days after he left, and we took, of course, the approval of our security cabinet only on Saturday morning before we launched the operation,” he told The Indian Express.
“It was basically, let’s say, an operational opportunity that we utilised as a result of the intelligence that came in real time,” he said.
In an interview with The Indian Express, Azar said that Israel have “invested billions of dollars throughout the years because of the nature of the threat” from Iran.
The money was used to create the intelligence capability to understand the Iranian regime, their military machinery, and to have all the means necessary to know what they are intending to do next, including who are the people there making decisions, where exactly they are located, and all the capabilities that are threatening Israel, he said.
“In terms of defence capabilities, we had to develop different systems to try to stop the barrage of missiles, ballistic missiles and rockets that were being fired at Israel, not only from Iran itself, but also from other countries where the proxies of Iran were residing,” Azar said, according to the Indian Express report.
“So thankfully, we had prepared at the highest level. In addition to that, thanks to the Abraham Accords, we have been able to coordinate our military operations and the surveillance of the air of the Middle East, together with CENTCOM, the Central Command of the US Forces in the region,” he added.
“And now, before this operation, we’ve been coordinating with the United States for a long time and been waiting for the right moment (to attack the Iranian leadership), which we didn’t know when was going to happen,” he said.
AI, real-time analysis and trained officials
Sharing details about the weapons in use, Azar said that new systems like Iron Beam, a laser defence system, along with advanced missile defence systems like Arrow 3 and David’s Sling has helped the country intercept “drone threats and also with the missiles and rocket threat”.
“Fortunately, most of them are intercepted. Unfortunately, some of them managed to penetrate, like we saw yesterday, with a terrible incident in which a civilian shelter was hit directly by a ballistic missile and caused the death of nine people,” he said.
Azar further expressed hope that targeted strikes on Iranian military targets by the Israeli Air Force and the Air Force of the United States and other countries will “degrade the ballistic missile threat more substantially than we did back in June.”
India’s diplomatic machinery in overdrive amid Middle East tension
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reached out to eight key West Asian nations as the military conflict between Washington and Tehran led to concerns over the safety of eight millions Indians in the region. In just two days, PM Modi has dialled Haitham bin Tariq, Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, along with leaders of Israel, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Bahrain.
The outreach comes as the supply disruption and transit concerns through the the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical oil chokepoint, have raised concerns over India’s current account deficit, fiscal health and rupee stability. New Delhi has pushed for restraint and an early end to hostilities, stressing the safety of its diaspora and stability of global oil markets.
In a scathing criticism of the Modi government, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi has said its silence on the targeted assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is not neutral but an abdication, and raises serious doubts about the direction and credibility of India’s foreign policy.
The former Congress president also demanded that when Parliament reconvenes for the second part of the Budget session, the government’s “disturbing silence” over the breakdown of international order must be debated openly and without evasion.