New Delhi: Israeli Ambassador to India Reuven Azar said Monday that while his country is not looking at perpetual war, he can’t specify how long the ongoing conflict with Iran will take to end.
He made it clear that the war will only stop when the full military capability of Iran is decimated, when the Iranian policies change, or when there is a regime change driven by popular revolt.
“We are not specifying exactly how long it will take because it depends on many factors…At the outset, both the US and Israel talked about a few weeks. It also depends on the opportunity Iran has to change course,” he said, briefing a group of reporters at his residence here.
“Right now, it doesn’t seem that they are changing course. On the contrary, they are doubling down. They are digging in.”
The Ambassador said that the situation can change in the future.
“We are hearing different rumours about differences within the Iranian decision-making process. So, this can take more time…We can have a diplomatic way out of this, if the Iranians decide that they want to cooperate with the international community,” he said.
Replying to specific questions on whether there will be Israeli and American boots on the ground in Iran, he said, “Neither the United States nor Israel has the intention of invading Iran.”
Israel, he said, wants to give the Iranian people a situation in which they can actually put pressure for a change in policy or for a change of the regime.
“We are going to see whether this happens or not but are resolute in putting a focus on that. It not only serves the Iranian people but it also serves our aim of creating a more stable future in the region,” he said.
“I think it also serves the general interest in the region, of the Gulf countries and also of the international community, to see a West Asia or Middle East which is much more stable and free from the terrible threats that the Iranians were planning to build or they were actually building.”
He also denied rumours of the Israeli Prime Minister being dead and said that the video released yesterday of him at a café was real and not AI.
Asked about what he has to say on India reaching out to Iran for safe transit of its merchant vessels through Strait of Hormuz, the envoy said that each country will do what is in their interest.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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