‘Israel cannot get away with attacking the Consulate’; ‘Iran’s actions will not go unanswered’: Ambassadors Elahi and Gillon speak exclusively to News18

Amid rising violence in West Asia, CNN-News18 on Tuesday spoke to the Iranian and Israeli ambassadors in Delhi on the current situation between the two countries.

India has a large expatriate community in the region, which both ambassadors assured to keep safe.

The Iranian side stated that their objectives had been achieved by exposing the weaknesses in Israel’s invincibility and they did not want further tension.

“We wanted to send a serious message to Israel that Iran is serious about protecting its security and national interests. We exposed Israel’s weakness, Iron Dome propaganda and invincibility. We wanted to prove that you cannot escape by attacking. Any attack must be retaliated against. So Israel cannot destroy the Iranian consulate and run away,” Iranian Ambassador Iraj Elahi told CNN-News18.

However, Israeli Ambassador Naor Gilon said that the Iranian attack will not be responded to.

“This 350-projectile attack by Iran and its proxies cannot go unanswered. We have to send a message to Iran that it will have to pay a price.

Israel has always been at war with Iranian proxies, Gillon said. He said that over the years, Iran has supported proxies through the Houthis, Hezbollah and others.

Referring to Sunday’s Iranian attack, he said, “America’s support to Israel is no less than anyone else.” The success was a joint success. We have our own technology which is unique in the world. Many countries support us and help protect us. All cruise missiles caused zero damage; We also sent planes to drop missiles. Dealing with surface-to-surface missiles is encouraging. However it is still 99%.”

Regarding the attack on the Iranian Consulate in Syria, Gilon said, “Israel never took responsibility for that attack. There have been many claims from Iran that Israel is killing people…why didn’t they take action earlier?”

The two ambassadors agreed that tensions had reached their peak and that although conflict and military alert remained in place, the possibility of an imminent full-scale war was over.

Both Iran and Israel have strong relations with India. About 18,000 Indians live in Israel and more than 10,000 in Iran as professionals, workers, caregivers and students. Both Iran and Israel want greater Indian engagement. While the Israeli ambassador said Indians in Israel are as safe as Israelis in the country, the Iranian envoy invited more Indians to come to Iran for study or work.

“There are many Indians who want to go to Israel. There is an advisory from India so it has been stopped for now. We hope it will resume soon,” said Ambassador Gillon.

Ambassador Elahi said, Israel has occupied the territory of Palestine. “Israel is killing innocent people. Israel is bombing innocent people. Israel is demolishing the houses of Palestinians. So Palestinians are protesting against this violation, this aggression,” he said. “Yes, we are supporting them, we do not deny it, we do not reject it. But why do we support the Palestinians? Because they have lost their territory. They have lost their motherland.”

Elahi talked about a Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. “There is also a need to talk about the root cause of these incidents,” he said. “Nobody talks about the seven decades of operations against Palestinians. At the same time, the retaliation by Israel is not proportionate… I believe that without America’s support, without America’s cover, without the support of Britain, France and other countries, Israel cannot do anything.

Gillon said that many Israelis are still in captivity of Hamas. “There are 133 people there, some died, some were murdered, some were abused, some were sexually assaulted,” he said.

He also addressed the issue of civilian casualties in Gaza. “The majority of the infiltration of 30,000 is from Hamas. We have killed about 12 thousand terrorists. Hamas wanted more civilian casualties. We tried to keep civilian casualties under control,” Gillon said. “The killing of aid workers was a mistake on our part; Action has been taken against the people involved in this act. We don’t want humanitarian people to die. There is always pressure on Israel. People, on the other hand, do not like pictures of dead civilians and military. We are trying to reduce it. We evacuated about 200,000 people and now we are slowly bringing them back.

Indian crew members detained after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized a cargo ship because of its links with Israel can leave whenever they want, the Iranian ambassador said. He told that there was also a woman in the Indian team. He has not been arrested by the Iranians and is being held by the ship’s captain, he said.

Speaking on the issue, Gillon said, “Is piracy legal? Even though it (the ship) is owned by Israel, is it legal to snatch it?”

Delhi and Tehran are coordinating on the issue of Indian representatives meeting the crew.