Israel doesn’t seek ‘perpetual war’ with Iran, says Envoy, suggests diplomatic options remain

Israel is not seeking a “perpetual war” with Iran, and would discuss a diplomatic way out of the war if Iran “changes course”, said Reuven Azar, Israel’s Ambassador to India. He, however, denied that Israel’s goals had changed due to Tehran’s retaliatory strikes. Addressing a press conference here as the war in West Asia entered its third week, Mr. Azar said there was no timeline on ending the war, but that the U.S. and Israel, which jointly launched the war with strikes killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khameini on February 28, had anticipated it lasting a “few weeks”.

The comments came as External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar reached Brussels for meetings with his EU counterparts and held talks with EU Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen. He said in an interview that his talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had “yielded some results” in the safe passage of two LNG-laden ships through the Hormuz Strait, and that he hoped more would follow.

Read: Iran-Israel war LIVE

“If it is (diplomacy with Iran) yielding results for me, I would naturally continue to look at it,” Mr. Jaishankar told the Financial Times. “Certainly, from India’s perspective, it is better that we reason and we co-ordinate and we get a solution than we don’t,” he added, suggesting that the world would be “better off” with a similar approach.

Reacting to the comments by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Mr. Azar claimed that Israel too “supports” diplomacy, and that Israel was in touch with all countries in the region.

“We are not here to do a perpetual war… we can have a diplomatic way out of this if the Iranians decide that they want to cooperate with the international community,” he said, suggesting that one option would be that the U.S. and Israel would “finish hitting their military targets”, and then return “to the table”. The Iranian government has said it would not accept talks or a ceasefire at present, accusing the U.S. of destroying the dialogue process by attacking Iran even as negotiators were due to meet for a second round of talks.

When asked by The Hindu about whether his comments denoted a change of stance by Israel, given that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier spoken of bringing a regime change, he said: targeting the newly appointed Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei like his father was, and destroying Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities. “The aims of this operation haven’t changed a bit… Of course, when our region is being attacked, there is an urge to defend the region, and we have been playing a role in hunting these drones and missiles that are not only launched against us, but are launched against our partners in the region,” he said, referring to Iran’s attacks on Gulf countries.

Mr. Azar said that Israeli casualties from Iranian attacks were “less than two dozen”, while over a hundred had been injured. He said Mr. Netanyahu was unhurt, and that a video released of the Israeli PM at a café was “not AI-generated”, adding that he met Mr. Netanyahu personally “more than once“, during his visit to Israel last week. More than 1,400 have been killed by U.S.-Israel strikes in Iran that continued on Monday, while more than 800 have been killed in Lebanon. Nearly 50 civilians and 13 U.S. armed force personnel have been killed in strike by Iran on other Gulf countries.

When asked whether Israel had discussed war plans with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit on February 25-26, just before the U.S.-Israel strikes, Mr. Azar said that while it was “evident that the situation was very volatile in the region even before Prime Minister Modi came… the operational opportunity came only after (he) left”, and the Israeli Cabinet approved the operation only two days later.