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Iran-Israel spat: National Interest is Supreme
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Bharat Verma | Date:13 Apr , 2012 1 Comment
Bharat Verma
A former Cavalry Officer and former Editor, Indian Defence Review (IDR), and author of the books, India Under Fire: Essays on National Security, Fault Lines and Indian Armed Forces.

India appears to be caught in crossfire between Iran and Israel.

New Delhi should evaluate the strategic dividends that accrue from Iran and Israel before it responds to the developing crisis.

There are many advantages in our relationship with Tehran. Iran is the second largest oil supplier to India after Saudi Arabia. India’s access to Afghanistan and Central Asia is via Iran as access by   land route through Pakistan is unlikely to be available in the foreseeable future.   As Central Asia holds huge reserves of oil and gas, access to this region will be vitally important for India’s energy security.  Our absence in Central Asia will give China runaway success.

There are many advantages in our relationship with Tehran.

Similarly, we can neither overlook nor allow our presence to be diminished in Afghanistan as the exhausted armies of the West withdraw. This will result in emergence of an Islamic Emirate under the tutelage of Pakistan that will stretch from Kabul to Islamabad and pose a serious threat to India’s multi-cultural and multi-party democracy. In addition, Tehran’s connectivity boasts of a large population of Shias who reside in India.

However, though profitable, the pipeline for gas or oil from Iran is not feasible due to the adverse security situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This situation is likely to persist for a long time to come.

We tend to see Israel in isolation as a small country by itself but the story does not end there.

On the other hand, New Delhi has very strong defence cooperation with Tel Aviv whereby we procure highly sensitive defence technologies. Presence of   not-so-friendly authoritarian Islamic fundamentalist regime and communist China in the neighbourhood, renders defence cooperation with Israel vitally important.  We tend to see Israel in isolation as a small country by itself but the story does not end there. We need to take into account  its influence and leverage with the largest superpower of the world. Further America, which supports Israel also leads the Western Alliance, which consists of very powerful group of nations. Therefore, Israel and the Western Alliance together lend an extraordinary strategic advantage to India in multiple ways. It is also noteworthy that the youth  from India gravitate to the western world for education and work opportunity and not to dictatorial regimes of Iran or China. This phenomenon is  attributable  to shared  values and respect for freedom.

In addition, the Arab World dominated by Sunnis is vehemently opposed to Iran (dominated by Shias) acquiring nuclear weapons. The Arab world will expect the United States to intervene militarily if necessary to thwart Iranian efforts to develop nuclear weapons.  India interacts in multiple ways profitably with the Arab countries too which includes supplies of oil.

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The views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of the Indian Defence Review.

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One thought on “Iran-Israel spat: National Interest is Supreme

  1. The most perplexing thing is, that this is about religion. Not religion directly, but the issue is that the differing sides have soldiers adhering to different faiths. Mohammad the Prophet said, that faith of Judaism was not being followed properly. Let us be frank, would he be happy with the way, non-Muslims are thinking about Muslims today? I know nothing about Judaism, but it is a great faith. I don’t know anything about Islam either, but great Hindu saints have practiced that religion. I really respect the religion, and it is true, that no religion is seen as being an influence on any other in India. How were there wars about God? I really believe, that those who fought on religion, and conquered lands in the name of religion, apart from certain people, were actually the greatest criminals. Today, no one wants to conquer, but they are fighting, for God. What can one say, about this?

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