The United States has directly joined Israel's unprovoked aggression against Iran by strikes at Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan in the early hours of this morning. The strikes were announced triumphantly by US President Donald Trump, claiming that Iran's nuclear key enrichment facilities had been "completely and totally obliterated" and thanking and congratulating Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel for working as a team with the US as "perhaps no team ever before".

Accusing Iran of being "the world’s number one state sponsor of terror" and the "bully of the Middle East", Trump literally ordered Iran to make peace and threatened it with far greater future attacks if it did not do so. The Israeli Prime Minister who had launched the so called ‘operation rising lion’ against Iran a week ago, leading to retaliation by Iran, in turn, congratulated and thanked President Trump for his “bold decision’’. 

The irony and hypocrisy in the statements of the leaders of the world’s most powerful country and its protégé, possibly the most belligerent country in the current international context, is too obvious to be missed. With its characteristic impunity, Israel launched unprovoked attacks against Iran at a time when the US and Iran were poised to resume negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme.

And after mixed signals emanating from the White House for a week, during which President Trump publicly contradicted the recent Congressional testimony of the US Director of Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that Iran was not actively building nuclear weapons, he decided to join Israel’s aggression, once again demonstrating Israel's powerful influence on US security and foreign policy in the Middle East. On her part, as one might expect, Tulsi Gabbard has now stated that her testimony was quoted out of context to create divisions within the US administration. 

The US attacks, along with Israel’s so called ‘‘operation rising lion’’ are brazen violations of Iran’s sovereignty, UN Charter and international law, and deserve unequivocal condemnation by the international community, who must also take urgent steps to stop Israel’s unbridled impunity as manifested in its ongoing genocide in Gaza and suppression of Palestinians per se. It is unfortunate that the Trump Presidency, which had started on promises and hopes for swift and meaningful diplomatic interventions to achieve peace without direct involvement of the US military, decided to join Israel in actions that have further imperilled regional and global peace and security. 

The terrorist attacks by Hamas on 7 October, 2023 were highly condemnable, but as the world has witnessed, Israel’s retaliation with disproportionate and brutal force killing thousands of innocent children, women and men and depriving the oppressed and valiant people of Palestine of the most basic needs of life, including food, water and medical care, leading to a horrific humanitarian crisis, can by no means be rationalised as actions taken in “self defence”. Likewise, Israel’s latest aggression against Lebanon and attacks in Syria and Yemen in recent months have made a mockery of a rule-based international order. 

India’s multifaceted cooperation with the United States and Israel is characterised as ‘comprehensive global strategic partnership’ and ‘strategic partnership’, respectively. However, these strong and mutually beneficial ties should not constrain Indian foreign policy from condemning the Israeli—US aggression against Iran, a country with whom India has millennia old civilisational bonds and cooperation in diverse sectors including energy, logistics and infrastructure, trade and commerce, and close people-to-people ties. 

India should also engage in proactive diplomacy to stop the massacre and humanitarian catastrophe in Palestine and in working towards a two-state solution with an independent sovereign State of Palestine living in peace alongside Israel, without which there can be no durable peace in the Middle East and the world. 

As one fifth of humanity, the largest democracy, 4th largest economy, a historic and respected leader of the Global South, a rising global power with vital stakes in the Middle East, and a Nation aspiring for a well deserved permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, India’s foreign policy must cease its hesitations on such critical issues. 

(The writer is a Former Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs. He served as Ambassador to Qatar and Lebanon and was Acting Consul General in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. Views are personal.)