Israel hasn't threatened any country with annihilation unlike Iran, says Ambassador Reuven Azar

Hindustan Times

4 hours ago

New Delhi, Nuclear powers around the world, while possessing significant military might, do not pose the same threat as Iran does due to their lack of aggressive policies and extreme ideologies, Israeli Ambassador Reuven Azar said on Friday. Israel hasn't threatened any country with annihilation unlike Iran, says Ambassador Reuven Azar
He also called on Iran to abandon its nuclear program and said "Israel hasn't threatened any country with annihilation."
Speaking to PTI Videos, Azar said, "We have stated that Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East."
He emphasized that the situation is fundamentally different when it comes to Iran, a "regime that has repeatedly called for Israel's destruction".
"We must be cautious with countries that have radical ideologies, especially those that deceive the international community repeatedly," Azar said.
He also expressed gratitude to the US for its support but emphasized that Israel is committed to defending itself independently.
He stressed that Israel's actions are rooted in self-defence.
"We are a democracy, and we go to war, unfortunately, only when we are threatened, and in this case, we are threatened with our own existence. We had no choice, and this is a consensus in Israel. It comes from all the parties that we have to take action because we want to survive," he added.
Azar asserted that Tel Aviv has definitive evidence that Iran's nuclear program posed a grave and immediate threat to Israel's security.
"We acted at almost the last moment we had in order to foil and remove Iran's plan for the extermination of our state," he said.
He claimed that Iran has been working for over three decades to build a strategy that could potentially destroy Israel.
While many find this hard to believe, he said, the evidence is clear.
"First and the most dangerous track is the nuclear track because this regime that has sworn to destroy Israel, has stated that, multiple times, was actually acquiring the means to have weapons of mass destruction. So, they have deceived the international community and the IAEA for many years and only last week, ten days ago, the IAEA issued a report saying that Iran is in a situation of non- compliance of the safeguard agreement of the NPT," he said.
According to Azar, Iran's high-level uranium enrichment was unjustified by any peaceful, civilian nuclear programme and pointed directly to the weaponization of their nuclear materials.
"We couldn't allow a country that has sworn to destroy us to acquire these capabilities," Azar said, adding. "That is why we took action against their nuclear programme."
In addition to its nuclear pursuits, Azar said Iran's "ballistic missile programme is the second major threat".
Over the years, Iran has developed an arsenal of thousands of ballistic missiles, capable of launching an unprecedented number of warheads, he claimed.
Azar said that the Iranian missile program could potentially lead to the production of 20,000 ballistic missiles within six years, each carrying the destructive power equivalent to a nuclear bomb, he further claimed.
The White House on Thursday said Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in "a couple of weeks" once given the go-ahead from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
However on March 25, US President Donald Trump's director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Iran was not moving towards building nuclear weapons.
Azar said Israel is "grateful to the US because it has given us the assistance that we need, first of all, to defend ourselves by ourselves".
He, however, said his country's principle has been - "Israel defends itself, and we do not expect others to fight our wars."
He made it clear that while Israel values American support, both military and moral, the country does not expect the US to take on a fighting role.
"We are not requesting others to come to our defence. We are defending ourselves," he added.
"Whatever the United States decides to do, and President Trump decides to do, is going to be according to American interests and American national interests," Azar said.
The White House on Thursday said Trump will decide whether or not the US gets directly involved in the Iran-Israel conflict within the next two weeks.
On whether Israel has found it easier to work with Trump's current administration compared to the previous one of Joe Biden, Azar said that their world view was more aligned with the current administration.
"We've been working with all administrations because the US is not only the biggest ally of Israel, but it's really our friend, and we share values and we share interests. And sometimes, you know, this doesn't mean that we will agree on everything. There were administrations which found it harder to see things eye to eye.
"Sometimes we had differences. So even by the administration that we, you know, had differences, we still enjoyed very generous assistance for which we are very grateful. I think that with the Trump administration, our world view is more in alignment, especially when it comes to dealing with elements like the Iranians."
Israel and Iran entered into an open military conflict when Israel, on June 13, launched a major attack with air strikes, setting off explosions in Tehran following which Iran retaliated.
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