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The Print
01-07-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Pakistan & North Korea are the 2 countries involved in Nuclear proliferation, says Israeli envoy to India
New Delhi: Two countries are involved in the global proliferation of weapons of mass destruction—Pakistan and North Korea—said Reuven Azar, Israel's ambassador to India at ThePrint's Off the Cuff Monday. Azar added that Iran, which had openly promised to transfer such weapons to non-state actors, led to Israel's military strikes against Tehran's nuclear programme. 'Look, you were asking before about what if Iran becomes nuclear. Most of the nuclear countries I know are not proliferating weapons of mass destruction. I know two of them that have been doing that. One of them is North Korea. The second is Pakistan, right? What if you had a country that actually already was planning to transfer a nuclear bomb to the Houthis?' Azar said, while in conversation with Shekhar Gupta, ThePrint's Editor-in-Chief. The Israeli ambassador added: 'This is intelligence that our prime minister exposed only last week. They were planning to transfer a nuclear bomb to the Houthis. Can you imagine that? Yeah, because they are non-state actors. They are non-state actors with more than half a state with them. So this is complicated.' Azar pointed out that Iran, while a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), was seeking to build a bomb, with the goal of 'exterminating' Israel in 2027, through the use of 'missile barrages' and a ground invasion from the 'North and the South'. However, the Israeli ambassador claimed that Hamas launched its attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, foiling Tehran's plan. 'What is interesting to see is that Hamas actually foiled the Iranian plan. And there was a document published about two weeks ago that our intelligence caught from Hamas archives, which showed the leader of Hamas was apologising to [Hassan] Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, for attacking Israel without coordinating [with] it. This was on the 7th of October,' said Azar. The strategic situation in West Asia Hamas' attacks had a cascading effect on Iran's security calculus. Tehran, which had painstakingly built a number of proxy forces to surround Israel, was on the back foot, especially following the degrading of Hezbollah's capabilities in Lebanon, by Israel. This led to a perception of 'vulnerability' within Iran, that led it to enrich uranium at very high rates, as it sought to go nuclear with its ballistic missiles, the Israeli ambassador explained in building the context to Tel Aviv's strategy in the past weeks. In the early hours of 13 June, the Israeli military launched Operation Rising Lion—military strikes targeting Iran's nuclear facilities and key personnel. Within the first few days, a number of senior Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists were killed. Roughly a week later, the US joined Tel Aviv, with its own Operation Midnight Hammer, that struck three Iranian nuclear facilities—Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. US President Donald J. Trump has asserted that the American strikes have 'completely obliterated' Iran's nuclear ambitions. Azar made it clear that Israel's operation had the blessings of the American administration from the beginning. 'The Americans told us, okay, give us 60 days, we'll try to negotiate with the Iranians. But if they don't comply with our demands, go ahead. Not only that, they planned this with us. So on day 61, we attacked. We dealt with two threats that were threats to eliminate our country, to annihilate us. One was the nuclear military threat, and the second, the ballistic missile threat,' Azar said. At the time, Iran was negotiating a deal with the US for its nuclear programme, with the fifth round of talks set to be held on 15 June in Oman. However, following the strikes, Iran pulled out of the deal. The conflict ended after 12 days, with both Tel Aviv and Tehran agreeing to a ceasefire. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had in an address to the Iranians, called for its people to rise up against the current administration. However, Azar clarified that 'regime change' was never a part of Tel Aviv's strategy during Operation Rising Lion. 'Nobody was planning to invade Iran or to take care of a nation of 100 million people. And therefore, as a democracy (Israel), which, you know, is accountable to its people, which actually has a conscription army, we are not in the business of, you know, dragging our people to endless wars to change the political landscape in other countries,' said Azar. The Israeli ambassador added: 'We are not capable of doing it. We don't have the will, okay? So we concentrated on these two goals (ending the nuclear programme and ballistic threat). And of course, you know, I would be very happy if there would be a regime change in Iran, but it depends on the Iranian people.' (Edited by Viny Mishra) Also read: Has Tel Aviv sought US aid to strike Iran's nuclear mountain? What Israeli envoy to India had to say
The Print
01-07-2025
- Politics
- The Print
We're not in ‘business' of regime change or redrawing maps, says Israeli ambassador to India
Gurugram: Israel is not in the 'business' of changing regimes or redrawing maps in West Asia like Turkey or Iran, said Reuven Azar, the Israeli ambassador to India at ThePrint's Off The Cuff Monday. 'We are not in the business of redrawing the map of the Middle East. Israel is pretty different from other powers in the region. And you could see that very clearly following the turmoil that started in 2011, what was called the Arab Spring. You had Arab countries that collapsed or that entered into a huge turmoil. Israel didn't interfere there to try to determine their political future,' Azar said, in conversation with Shekhar Gupta, ThePrint's Editor-in-Chief at The Quorum, Gurugram. Azar added: 'There were other countries that did interfere, like for example, Iran and Turkey. So we are in the business of trying to serve our interests. And as much as we are concerned with dealing with our threats, we are trying to also grasp opportunity.' The 'opportunity' indicated by the Israeli envoy is the Abraham Accords—a series of treaties which normalised ties between Tel Aviv and a number of countries in the region, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. The Accords, which were signed between September 2020 and January 2021, were one of the most hard-won geopolitical battles in West Asia and North Africa this decade. They build on the Camp David Accords, which saw Israel and Egypt agree to peace at the end of the 1970s and the peace treaty between Jordan and Tel Aviv, signed in 1994. The agreements aimed to normalise diplomatic ties between Israel and the aforementioned states, eventually creating common interests between countries that for over seven decades had had none. 'This has nothing to do with redrawing maps. It's just a matter of fulfilling the common interest we have with those countries that are more pragmatic in our region and are interested like us to promote stability and connectivity,' Azar said, explaining the Accords. The Israeli envoy, when asked about why Tel Aviv did not push for regime change in Iran, made it clear that Israel has no capabilities to drag its 'conscript' army to impose such changes. Tel Aviv launched Operation Rising Lion on 13 June, striking at key Iranian nuclear facilities and military personnel. Within days at least 10 senior Iranian generals and a number of nuclear scientists were killed by Israel's military operation. The US joined in the strikes on 21 June, through Operation Midnight Hammer, which struck Tehran's nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. 'I don't remember any case in which there was regime change from the air, okay? So nobody was planning to invade Iran or to take care of a nation of 100 million people. And therefore (Israel), as a democracy, which, you know, is accountable to its people, that actually has a conscription army, we are not in the business of, you know, dragging our people to endless wars to change the political landscape in other countries,' said Azar. The ambassador added: 'We are not capable of doing it. We don't have the will, okay? …and of course, you know, I would be very happy if there would be a regime change in Iran, but it depends on the Iranian people.' In the 12-day war, Israel gained air superiority over Iran. Tehran, in its retaliatory operation—True Promise 3—sought to strike at Israel using ballistic missiles. The Israeli air defence systems were able to intercept roughly 90 percent of Iran's missiles. However, the use of ballistic missiles by Iran saw a number of buildings hit and 29 Israelis killed, while over 3,000 were injured. According to Iranian officials, 935 people were killed by Israeli air strikes in the West Asian nation. The air superiority gained by Israel allowed the US' B2 stealth bombers to enter Iranian airspace unhindered and drop 'bunker buster' bombs at Fordow and Natanz. Fordow, Iran's most fortified uranium enrichment site was buried deep underground. The US has claimed to have 'completely obliterated' the site. At least two such bombs were also used at Natanz. However, any assessments of the true damage to the nuclear programme of Iran will take time to be reported. 'What is important in our perspective is that… the fact that Iran will continue to possess fissile material that is enriched to a high level doesn't mean that they will be able to reconstitute their nuclear plan that easily, because we have destroyed their centrifuges factory,' Azar said. The Israeli ambassador added: 'We have hit dozens of sites that were related to the nuclear programme and we continue to have penetration into the Iranian system and the resolve to deal with the situation in which Iran re-embarks on a military nuclear plan.' (Edited by Viny Mishra) Also read: Pakistan & North Korea are the 2 countries involved in Nuclear proliferation, says Israeli envoy to India
The Print
01-07-2025
- Business
- The Print
Trump is parent who took back Ferrari from kid—Israel's India envoy on US subsidising Europe's security
Gurugram: The US is 'fed up' of subsidising Europe's security, and is now correcting the situation, like a father who gifts a Ferrari to his child, and then wants it back, said Reuven Azar, Israel's Ambassador to India at ThePrint's Off The Cuff Monday. 'For many years, many European countries thought that war was something of the past when it came to Europe. It would never come back. And therefore, they didn't invest anything in their armed forces. Now they have come to the conclusion that they were wrong and that there was a huge gap between their ambitions when it came to the expansion of the European project and the capability to back it up with military power. And the Americans got fed up,' Azar said while in conversation with Shekhar Gupta, ThePrint's Editor-in-Chief, at The Quorum in Gurugram. The Israeli Ambassador added: 'They (the US) got to a situation where there was preferential treatment on trade to some countries with a combination of subsidising their security and it was actually making them bankrupt. What this administration is trying to do is to correct the system.' The US under President Donald J. Trump has sought greater investment in defence spending by European allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The members of the military alliance, consisting of 32 nations at its most recent summit last week, have agreed to achieve 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) in defence spending by 2035. Trump has long railed against the lack of investment in defence by Europeans. Almost two decades earlier in 2006, members of NATO arrived at a consensus to spend at least 2 percent of their annual budget on defence. In 2014, the member-states agreed to commit to the 2 percent target. Despite agreeing to the commitment in 2014, at least eight NATO members, including Spain, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Belgium, Canada, Italy, Portugal and Croatia have yet to touch the 2 percent target. 'There's a story about this guy that gave his son a Ferrari. One day, he decided to take the Ferrari. And the son was cursing him, saying, you don't care about me, right? So now, America is taking back the Ferrari. You have to decide what you are going to do,' said Azar. In the build-up to the NATO Summit at the Hague last week, Secretary-General Mark Rutte described Trump as a 'daddy' while the two were discussing the situation in West Asia, between Iran and Israel. The Europeans unveiled the red carpet for Trump at The Hague as an effort to keep the US President involved in NATO. He has in the past mulled over exiting the bloc and has even been unclear whether he would defend a member-state under attack. 5 percent on defence—the new normal? Azar was asked whether the 5 percent standard agreed to by NATO has become the new standard for defence spending across the globe. The Israeli ambassador pointed out that before 7 October 2023, Israel was already spending 6 percent of its GDP on defence. 'Well, it depends on the threats. In our case (Israel), we were investing almost 6 percent of our GDP before the war. Hopefully we'll be able to go back to these numbers in the future, especially if our economy continues growing and it seems that it is going to continue growing. But there are countries that are not threatened and therefore they don't need to invest anything,' Azar said. The Israeli ambassador added: 'What our Prime Minister used to say is, don't bother dealing with the percentage. Just make sure your economy grows.' Investing in a nation's defence, according to Azar, would have a positive impact on the economy by giving investors confidence to invest in the country. Coupling this investment with liberalisation policies would help economies innovate, the ambassador added. 'Build your defence and liberalise your markets. Because the stronger your defence, the more people will have the confidence to come and invest in your country. And the more you liberalise your market, the more people will feel free to be entrepreneurs,' said Azar. The Israeli ambassador added: 'We need more entrepreneurs. We have to have some ambassadors and people who get salaries from the government. But, you know, at the end of the day, the country is going to prosper thanks to the entrepreneurs.' (Edited by Viny Mishra) Also read: We're not in 'business' of regime change or redrawing maps, says Israeli ambassador to India
ABC News
26-06-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Australians with family stuck in Iran are living a nightmare. Trauma stalks those who escaped
Azar has not slept properly in days. In May, her 70-year-old mother Frances went to Iran to see her sisters — her first visit to the country in roughly a decade. Frances is now one of around 3,000 Australians and their families registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for assistance to leave — almost two weeks after Israeli bombs started falling on the capital Tehran. On the advice of DFAT, Frances made the perilous overland journey to the Iran-Azerbaijan border hoping to cross. Instead, Azerbaijan officials said she needed a visa and a special code — and knocked her back. DFAT has said some staff from its Iran embassy have remained at the Azerbaijan border to help Australians. But Azar said they were unable to assist her mother. "We didn't ask for buses, we didn't ask for planes … just open that damn door when they get there," she said. "Have someone to verify their identification with their passports. That isn't difficult to do." Early in the morning on Thursday (Sydney time), DFAT finally sent a code to Azar and Frances that would have allowed the mother to cross into Azerbaijan. But Frances, who ran out of medication for her heart condition while waiting for days at the Azerbaijan border, was forced to travel further back into Iran to seek urgent medical help. "She is the best hands-on grandma you could imagine. She does everything with my kids and for my kids," Azar said. The ABC understands that Foreign Minister Penny Wong has raised concerns with the speed of processing of border crossing codes with her Azerbaijani counterpart. As with other people in this story, the ABC is not publishing Azar and Frances's full names due to ongoing safety concerns. Iran and Israel have agreed to a shaky ceasefire, but being in Iran remains dangerous. Iran's Health Minister Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi this week said more than 600 people had died in Israeli strikes during the war. The US-based Human Rights Activists group, based on figures collated from Iranian sources, put the death toll higher at 1,054. Just days after Israel began bombing Iran in mid-June, DFAT evacuated its staff from Tehran to Azerbaijan. "The government has a responsibility to ensure the safety of our staff," Senator Wong said at the time. "We do not have to cast our minds back too far in history to understand the risk to foreign officials in Iran in times of unrest." Melbourne woman Mehi, who managed to escape Iran last week into Turkiye without DFAT assistance, said she felt abandoned by the Australian government. The evacuation of the embassy showed DFAT knew how to move Australians out of Iran, Mehi said. "How come no-one sent me an email to say … 'there's a transport for all the Iranian-Australians, you can catch this bus?'" she said. "You know the way to help other citizens. Why didn't you help us? "You could have just had two buses there, take them to the border with Turkiye or Armenia, and help them to escape." Unlike neighbouring Azerbaijan, Armenia does not require Australians to hold a visa for entry. DFAT responded to the ABC's inquiries but did not address many of the specific concerns raised. "DFAT officers in Azerbaijan, including at its border crossing, are working hard to support Australians seeking to leave Iran," a spokesperson said in a statement. "DFAT is working with Azerbaijan authorities to help facilitate border crossing codes. "We acknowledge that the number of people seeking to leave as well as the unstable internet connectivity in Iran is making the border crossing more difficult. "Unfortunately, at this stage our ability to provide consular services is extremely limited due to the situation on the ground." Adelaide woman Naz Forooz, who first spoke to the ABC's Radio National Breakfast this week, found herself in a similar situation to Azar. Ms Forooz's mother — who was in Iran to farewell her own dying mother — also travelled to the border on the advice of DFAT and was turned back by Azerbaijan officials. Without the DFAT advice to go to the Azerbaijan border crossing people would have instead gone to the borders with Turkiye or Armenia, Ms Forooz said. "But because [DFAT] said that there was help available, people started flooding [to the Azerbaijan border crossing] and then the system just couldn't handle it." Azar agreed, arguing that people would not have gone to the Azerbaijan border had DFAT not directed them to do so. "It looks like the ones that followed the DFAT advice were the most vulnerable ones ... like elderly women travelling on their own," she said. "Armenia and Turkiye were the obvious choices. Or they would just stay put." The US has encouraged Americans in Iran to exit via land borders into Azerbaijan, Armenia or Turkiye "if they can do so safely". Chinese state media reported this week that its embassy had managed to get almost all Chinese nationals out of Iran, after booking 17 buses to evacuate people via land border crossings into Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. India's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it has evacuated some 2,576 Indians from Iran since last week. Mehi decided "no-one is going to do anything for us" and left Tehran one day before Israeli strikes hit the offices of Iran's state broadcaster — next door to Mehi's family home. She said DFAT's communications had been generic and unhelpful — urging her to follow Smartraveller on social media for updates. But Iranian authorities have regularly cut off internet access in the country since the war with Israel broke out — at times for days at a time. "Are you serious? I just asked for help, you're asking me to look at Instagram and Facebook," Mehi said. "I'm dealing with my life and my family." Ms Forooz's mother is, for now, still in Iran. Ms Forooz told the ABC she was left with "zero faith" in DFAT and frustration at a perceived lack of urgency by the department. "It feels like I have done a lot more to organise her path back home than DFAT has," she said. "There's obviously been a systematic failure. There's been a complete lack of clear communication and the information they've given us turned out to be wrong. Safe in Melbourne, Mehi worries for her Iranian family members who can't leave the country. The trauma of their harrowing escape into Turkiye, during which Mehi held onto pepper spray because she feared what people might do to them along the way, meant she has been unable to return to work. Her 22-year-old daughter, a science student at Deakin University, had not left the house since arriving into Melbourne last Thursday. "We pay our taxes ... we are just the same as other communities," Mehi said. "The most painful part is no-one helped us." Other Iranian-Australians who spoke to the ABC resoundingly felt the response was drastically different to that for Australian citizens in Israel. Several government-assisted flights this week have helped hundreds of Australians flee Tel Aviv. Flight tracking website Flightradar24 reported on Thursday morning (Sydney time) that Iranian airspace over Tehran and western parts of the country remained closed. Azar said her mother Frances — a NSW nurse for several decades — had been let down by what she saw as a government that "doesn't care about [Iranians] as a community". "She's dedicated most of her life to serving the Australian community," Azar said. "Is it that one person born in one country, has priority over someone born in another? "Because that's what it looks like."
India Today
24-06-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Neutralised Iran's nuke threats, but job is not yet over: Israeli envoy
Israel has achieved its goal of eliminating the nuclear threat from Iran and setting back the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme for years, Israeli ambassador to India Reuven Azar said amid escalating tensions between the long-time an exclusive interview with India Today Podcasts, Azar explained that Israel had achieved two objectives of eliminating the threat of Iran's nuclear programme, but asserted that the "job was still not done". advertisement"The first thing we removed is the nuclear threat. We identified in the past few months that a clandestine criminal group of scientists were actually assembling a nuclear weapon. They are using file material and trying to put it on a ballistic missile. We have neutralised the ballistic missile programme of Iran, but the job is still not done," he said. "There are still many launchers around there. We've been able to take out more than half of them, but still we're seeing barrages of missiles being fired at Israel that are causing huge devastation. We hope after they are achieved, we will be able to renew diplomatic efforts and to restore stability in the region," he why the US struck Iran's nuclear sites of Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz together, he said it was important to strike them as they were actively involved in the Islamic Republic's nuclear was the main facility in which Iran was enriching uranium. It had a surface facility and an underground facility that we targeted. Isfahan was the main conversion site in which the file material was being converted into a metal that is being used on a nuclear device," Azar said."Fordow was less significant in terms of uranium enrichment capacity, but what it had was the so-called immunity... So, for us, it would have been more difficult to tackle them because the ammunition we have is limited in power. The fact that the US decided to complement our efforts with their own efforts is very important because they had the right weapons needed to penetrate the facilities," he ambassador said that Israel had now achieved air superiority and would now be able to thwart Iran's attempts to assemble nuclear weapons in the future."We are a new situation in our region. For 30 years, the Iranians have been attacking us directly and indirectly with complete impunity. Finally, in the last year, they have been paying the price for their crimes. For us, it's not only an issue of payback, it's an issue of our mere survival because the Iranians have not only sworn to destroy us, but they have been developing the means to do so," he said.'WE DESTROYED IRAN'S NUCLEAR FACILITIES'advertisementAzar said Israel and the US destroyed Iran's nuclear facilities that took the country "decades to build and cost them tens of billions of dollars"."We have taken their military installations. So, they will have to choose in the future what they want. We know that, by the way, they did all this investment in malign activities on the account of the Iranian people. So, the Iranian economy is in shambles. But they will have to decide what to do first if they want to reconstitute. They have a lot of effort to do in order to reconstitute everything," he Iran of "cheating" the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) for 30 years, the envoy said that Tehran had lost its right to uranium enrichment following the strikes on their nuclear sites."We don't think that we can trust the Iranians to enrich uranium. They don't deserve that. We want a verifiable commitment that a ballistic missile programme will disappear from Iran and they won't be able to assemble ballistic missiles. We want a verifiable commitment that Iran will stop this proxy war against Israel. This is what we want," he asserted that Israel had reserved all rights to defend itself and threatened further consequences for Iran if it continued striking the Jewish if the conflicts with Iran and Hamas were "forever wars", Azar replied, "No. It is not forever.""When it comes to Iran, as I told you, we will continue only until we finish the job. When it comes to neutralising the threats of nuclear and ballistic, the war can end very fast. When it comes to Gaza, the war could end today if Hamas renounces power. If it doesn't renounce power, this effort can continue for months, but it won't be forever," he INTERVENING IN ISRAEL-IRAN CONFLICT? ENVOY if Russia had intervened in the Israel-Iran conflict, Azar said Israel had a lot in common with the country "when it came to fighting against Nazism" and shared the same heritage."We have engaged with the Russians. I personally participated in some of the meetings and the trips that Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu had with President (Vladimir) Putin. We have a lot in common with the Russians. We have a common heritage when it comes to fighting Nazism. We have a huge constituency in Israel that is Russian-speaking," he ambassador stressed that Putin was keen to improve the security situation in the region and both sides were making efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region."We created the mechanism for them with them, for example, to deconflict the situation in Syria when their navy and air force were in Syria. We can maybe work out with them a way out of this crisis with the Iranians and the Americans together," he further said.- EndsMust Watch IN THIS STORY#Israel#Iran#Middle East
