India reiterates concern about Iran-Israel tensions, says monitoring updates on nuke sites
NEW DELHI: India on Thursday reiterated its concerns about the escalation of tensions between Iran and Israel, including attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, and called for dialogue and diplomacy for the early restoration of regional peace and stability. Flames from a fire at the Tehran oil refinery, located south of the capital, are seen burning in the distance on June 15 (AFP FILE)
The Indian side is closely following updates from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about radiation levels at the affected sites in Iran, external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a weekly media briefing in response to a question about New Delhi's position on Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists and scientific institutions.
India on Tuesday welcomed the ceasefire between Iran and Israel after 12 days of hostilities, but reiterated its concerns about sustained security and stability in West Asia.
'We expressed deep concerns about the recent escalation of the situation in West Asia, including the attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities. Subsequently, we welcomed the ceasefire as you would have seen,' Jaiswal said.
'India is closely following updates from IAEA about radiation levels in the affected sites. We have noted that so far, IAEA has reported that the targeted facilities either confirmed no nuclear material, or small quantities of natural or low-enriched uranium, and that radioactive contamination has been limited to the buildings affected by the strikes.'
India has called for a 'return to the path of dialogue and diplomacy for an early restoration of regional peace, security and stability', Jaiswal said.
A joint statement issued by Brics, of which India is a member, characterised the military strikes on Iran as a violation of international law, though this issue has not figured in statements issued by India.
When Jaiswal was asked about this matter, he responded by saying: 'I have seen the joint statement… where the member countries have expressed this grave concern. I would also urge you to look at the statements we have issued on the Israel-Iran issue, where we expressed our deep concern on the escalation and called for the route of dialogue and diplomacy to be taken for de-escalation.'
Jaiswal also provided an update on Operation Sindhu, launched on June 18 to bring back Indian nationals from Iran and Israel. A total of 3,426 Indians, 11 OCI card-holders, nine Nepalese nationals, four Sri Lankan citizens and an Iranian woman married to an Indian citizen were evacuated from Iran.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
28 minutes ago
- Time of India
Strict action against anyone disrupting Kanwar Yatra: Dy CM
1 2 Prayagraj: Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Thursday said the state govt would take strict legal action against anyone disrupting the faith and devotion of kanwariyas. "Kanwar Yatra is a symbol of faith, discipline and enthusiasm. Govt is making elaborate arrangements for the yatra across the state in the month of Shravan. However, mischievous elements should not be given any opportunity to spoil the environment," he said. Maurya was in city to participate in poet Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's birth anniversary celebrations. He said all religious events must be conducted with devotion, safety, and social harmony, and the administrative machinery must work with full sensitivity and alertness. He also lashed out at Samajwadi Party and said whenever land grabbing cases involving people associated with the SP are being investigated, they make baseless allegations. On the question of grabbing govt land by slain Atiq Ahmed's henchmen, the Deputy CM said whoever is involved in such misdeeds should immediately stop this or else the state govt will teach them a lesson. Speaking on Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Maurya said: "His poem Vande Mataram is a great mantra that helped India break the shackles of British slavery and increased the honour of the Indian tricolour. Our freedom fighters embraced execution while singing this mantra." by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch vàng CFDs với mức chênh lệch giá thấp nhất IC Markets Đăng ký Undo He said Chatterjee's pen did the work that even swords couldn't do. He also garlanded the pictures of Chatterjee and Bharat Mata. On the occasion, the district unit of BJP organised a mass singing of "Vande Mataram" at Amar Shaheed Chandrashekhar Azad Circuit House on Thursday. BJP's Prayagraj Mahanagar president Sanjay Gupta said: "Prayagraj is the only district where every year a collective Vande Mataram is sung on the birth anniversary of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee on June 26. This is a matter of pride. Vande Mataram is our consciousness and our strength."
Deccan Herald
33 minutes ago
- Deccan Herald
Air India crash: India reportedly denies entry to UN aviation investigator; US official hopes findings shared quickly
Washington: India would not allow a UN investigator to join a probe of a crashed Air India jet that some safety experts had criticised for delays in analysis of crucial black box data, two senior sources familiar with the matter told this week, the United Nations aviation agency took the unusual step of offering India one of its investigators to provide assistance following the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crash killing 260 people in Ahmedabad on June the International Civil Aviation Organization has deployed investigators to help with certain probes, such as the downing of a Malaysian plane in 2014 and a Ukrainian jetliner in 2020, but those times the agency had been asked for had asked for the investigator who was in India to be given observer status, but Indian authorities refused the offer, the sources said. The news was first reported on Thursday by the Indian news channel Times Now..'Bloody terrified': Flying anxiety peaks after fatal Air India Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the probe into the world's deadliest aviation accident in a decade, did not return a request for comment. ICAO was not immediately available for civil aviation ministry said on Thursday that investigators downloaded flight recorder data around two weeks after the safety experts had questioned a lack of information about the probe, including the status of the combined black box unit recovered on June 13, along with a second set that was found on June were also raised on whether the recorders would be read in India or in the U.S. since the National Transportation Safety Board is participating in the investigation. The Indian government held only one press conference on the incident, and no questions were international rules known throughout the industry by their legal name "Annex 13," the decision of where to read flight recorders should be made immediately in case the evidence obtained could avert future this week, an Indian aviation ministry official who declined to be named said the department has been "following all the ICAO protocols." The official added that media representatives have made updates on important air crashes are caused by multiple factors, with a preliminary report expected about 30 days after the accident. .The head of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday she hopes the Indian government will be able to share details from the investigation into the Air India crash this month that killed 260 people in short civil aviation ministry said on Thursday that investigators have downloaded flight recorder data from the crash with assistance from the NTSB. "For aviation safety and for public safety and public awareness we hope that they will make their findings public swiftly," U.S. Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy told Reuters.
Hindustan Times
41 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
How US used its bunker-buster bombs at Iranian nuclear sites
The deep penetrating bombs that the US dropped into two Iranian nuclear facilities were designed specifically for those sites and were the result of more than 15 years of intelligence and weapons design work, the Pentagon's top leaders said Thursday. US Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber, assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing out of Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, performs a fly-over during the Speed of Sound Airshow, at Rosecrans Air National Guard Base in St. Joseph, Missouri, U.S. September 14, 2024.(Reuters) Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a press briefing that they are confident the weapons struck exactly as planned. Caine, the nation's top military officer, offered new details about the work that went into building the "bunker-buster" bombs and how the US used them to burrow into the Iranian sites. He sought to show the level of destruction but did not directly address President Donald Trump's assertion that Tehran's nuclear programme has been "obliterated." A classified briefing that pushed US work on bunker busters The bombs, called the GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator, have their roots in a decades-old classified briefing "of what looked like a major construction project in the mountains of Iran," Caine said. That turned out to be the Fordo fuel enrichment plant, with construction believed to have started around 2006. It became operational in 2009, the same year Tehran publicly acknowledged its existence. The classified briefing was shown in 2009 to a Defense Threat Reduction Agency officer, who with a colleague "lived and breathed" Fordo for the next 15 years, studying the geology, construction dig, the earth moved and "every piece of equipment going in and every piece of equipment going out," Caine said. What they concluded: The US didn't have a bomb that could destroy those sites. So the Pentagon got to work, Caine said. "We had so many PhDs working on the mock programm — doing modelling and simulation — that we were quietly and in a secret way the biggest users of supercomputer hours within the United States of America," he said. How the bunker busters are designed The 30,000-pound bomb is comprised of steel, explosive and a fuse programmed to a specific detonation time. The longer the fuse, the deeper the weapon will penetrate before exploding. Over the years, the military tested and retested it hundreds of times on mock facilities, Caine said. Crews fine-tuned the bombs to detonate in the mock enrichment rooms, delaying detonation until they had reached a position to send a pressure blast through open tunnels to destroy equipment underground. How the US said it bombed an Iranian underground nuclear facility Fordo had two main ventilation routes into the underground facility — and officials carefully eyed these entry points as a way to target the site. Each route had three shafts — a main shaft and a smaller shaft on either side, which looked almost like a pitchfork in graphics provided by the Pentagon. In the days preceding the US attack, Iran placed large concrete slabs on top of both ventilation routes to try to protect them, Caine said. In response, the US crafted an attack plan where six bunker-buster bombs would be used against each ventilation route, using the main shaft as a way down into the enrichment facility. Seven B-2 stealth bombers were used, carrying two of the massive munitions apiece. The first bomb was used to eliminate the concrete slab, Caine said. The next four bombs were dropped down the main shaft and into the complex at a speed of more than 1,000 feet per second before exploding, he said. A sixth bomb was dropped as a backup, in case anything went wrong. In addition to the 12 bombs dropped on Fordo, with six on each ventilation route, two more hit Iran's main Natanz facility, Caine said. Each crew was able to confirm detonation as they saw the bombs drop from the aircraft in front of them: "We know that the trailing jets saw the first weapons function," Caine said. The pilots reported back that it was the brightest explosion they had ever seen — that it looked like daylight, he said. Questions remain about the whereabouts of Iran's highly enriched uranium Caine said the munitions were built, tested and loaded properly, guided to their intended targets and then exploded as designed. "Iran's nuclear facilities have been destroyed," Hegseth said. However, questions remained as to whether the highly enriched uranium that Iran would need to develop a nuclear weapon was at the site at the time. Asked repeatedly, Hegseth did not say if the uranium had been destroyed or moved. "I'm not aware of any intelligence that I've reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be — moved or otherwise," Hegseth said.
