Iran is “encouraging” terrorism against Israel, “including” in Delhi and its concerns in this regard have been conveyed to the Indian government, Israeli Ambassador Daniel Carmon on Thursday said.
The envoy told reporters during an interaction here that Israel does not feel “left out or abandoned” over India’s deepening ties with Iran. India and Israel have a lot going on, he said adding that the visit of his country’s President to India is pending.
He also called for united efforts in combating terror.
“Terror is terror is terror. I think the phrase that I have learnt in India is a very important one that there is no good terror or bad terror. Terrorism anywhere should be fought and denounced. It is one of the challenges we face and have to confront,” he said.
Asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel was on the cards, Carmon said it will happen in “due course”, without giving further details. He said the high-level visits would be very important for both the countries and “beyond ceremonial”.
“Iran is encouraging terrorism including in this very city. We had unfortunately an attack in 2012 against a diplomat of Israel embassy. Iran is encouraging instability in our region, Iran is developing capabilities.
“Iran is practically on the borders with Israel and I think the world knows and if we have not been vocal enough to express what we feel about Iran then we have failed. But I think we have not failed. Our hosts in India, our counterparts know exactly what we feel about Iran,” Carmon said.
Israeli diplomat Tal Yehoshua and an Indian driver of the embassy vehicle, was among four people injured in a 2012 blast after a magnetic bomb stuck to the vehicle went off in the national capital. Israel had alleged that Iran was behind it.
Asked about how Israel views Modi’s visit to Iran in March and the deal on developing the strategic Chabahar port, Carmon said Israel has been keeping mum on these issues as it does not tell its friends on “how to conduct their foreign policy”.
“We will continue to express what we feel all over the world. We will continue to monitor from our side the agreement (P5+1) which we feel was not good. Growing India-Iran ties do not make us feel left out,” he said.
Source: / Indianexpress /