New Delhi: Israel’s Ambassador to India Naor Gilon said Wednesday that his country has been in talks with Indian authorities about the possibility of New Delhi designating Hamas as a terror organisation.
“It’s time to officially designate Hamas, also in India, as a terror organisation. Many countries have — most are democracies like the EU, US, and Canada. I think it’s good,” he told a group of journalists.
He further said: “We spoke to the relevant authorities here. It’s not the first time we’ve spoken about it. We understand the problem of terror threats…We are not putting pressure [on India]; we are asking”.
Hamas, which launched an attack on Israel on 7 October and has taken over 200 hostages, has been designated as a terror organisation by Israel, the US, and the European Union.
When ThePrint reached Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi for a comment on these talks, he reiterated his remarks in a press briefing on 12 October. At that time, he said designating an organisation a terror group is a “legal matter”.
“The designation of a terrorist organisation under Indian laws is a legal matter…I would refer you to the relevant authorities in this. I think we’ve been very clear that we see this as a terrorist attack. But on the designation part, the relevant authorities are the best place to respond to it,” Bagchi had said two weeks earlier.
Speaking to Indian journalists, Gilon said India designating Hamas as a terror group “is something that is due because of our (India and Israel’s) shared war on terror”, adding that talks between India and Israel on this issue have been “friendly”.
Earlier on Tuesday, while speaking before a special meeting of the UN Security Council, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken argued that acts of terrorism must be denounced whether they target people in Nairobi “or Mumbai” and cited the Islamic State and Lashkar-e Toiba (LeT) as examples of terror groups.
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Erdogan’s remarks on Hamas ‘unfortunate’
While Western leaders have likened Hamas to the Islamic State, some Arab leaders like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have termed Hamas fighters “liberators of their own land”.
Israel ambassador Gilon called Erdoğan’s remarks “unfortunate”, adding that Iran, Turkey, Qatar, and Iran have been supporting Hamas.
It has also been reported that Russia is not yet ready to designate Hamas as a terror organisation, with its prosecutor general’s office reportedly saying this would only be “when a court verdict confirming unlawful acts comes into force”, according to the independent news outlet, Mozhem Obyasnit.
The Israel envoy further argued, without naming countries, that Hamas’s success is not in the interest of moderate regimes in the Middle East.
“Putting aside the Arab public opinion, if you could look at it from the perspective of moderate regimes in the Middle East, at the end of the day, the success of Hamas is not an option for them. They don’t want it,” he said.
He added: “Speaking of the moderate countries in West Asia (Middle East), the need to eradicate Hamas as a threat to Israel and the region is a must for everyone”.
Israel and Saudi Arabia’s talks for normalisation of ties, which were gaining momentum with US support earlier this year, have been put on ice after Hamas’s attack on 7 October.
Gilon argued that if Israel is successful in eradicating Hamas, it will gain “more support” from others in the region. “We are fighting the same enemies that they are,” he told reporters.
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