Referring to the conflict in the Middle East and the Israel-Palestine issue, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday said that eventually, India supports a homeland for the Palestinians and is public about its stand.
While speaking at Gargi College on Vishwa Bandhu Bharat, Jaishankar said, “So you have a very tense, very complicated situation involving Israel, involving the Palestinians, involving many of the Arab countries, the Gulf monarchies, involving Iran. There was an exchange of the Iranians and the Israelis a few days ago, they fired on each other.”
“Now, look at how a Vishwa Bandhu would approach this situation. We were very clear when Israel was, on October 7, when the terrorists attacked Israel that this was terrorism. We took a clear stance on it. When Israel responded, we also took a position that, whenever any military response takes place, it is very important that civilian lives are protected. And if you are displacing civilians, so they are no longer in their homes, you have to give some kind of humanitarian corridor out there. We also have, when Israel and Iran started firing at each other,” Jaishankar said.
In his address at Gargi College EAM Jaishnkar also shared that, on the Prime Minister’s instructions, he personally contacted the foreign ministers of the involved parties, expressing regional concerns and urging restraint.
“I personally called up the two foreign ministers there on the Prime Minister’s instructions and basically told them saying, look, the whole region is worried. I mean, we urge you, don’t go forward on this. And today, actually while we are doing all of this, and by the way, in terms of the Middle East, we support eventually a homeland for the Palestinians and we are very public about that as well, ” said Jaishankar.
Jaishankar also noted India’s practical contribution to the situation, with around 20 ships deployed in the Red Sea to mitigate attacks on shipping, which disrupt trade and increase costs.
“We also today make a practical contribution. About 20 of our ships are actually in the Red Sea, making sure that these attacks on shipping, which increase the cost of trade, that those attacks are limited. So I give you again, just think how many parties, Israelis, Palestinians, the Arab countries out there, the Iranians, and yet we are able to actually engage all of them,” EAM stated.
Following this, Jaishankar also mentioned the Russia-Ukraine conflict which started in February 2022, and said, “We had urged students to come home. The vast majority of students stayed and found themselves in the conflict zone. They were in different cultures and different cities.”
Jaishankar mentioned the continuous efforts to engage with the neighbouring countries to ensure the students’ safe evacuation of the student while highlighting the Vishwa Bandhu foreign policy’s role.
“Here is the challenge that we faced with how to bring students from a conflict zone…Think about what it means in terms of how you achieved this. One was to ensure initially that many people could come as soon as possible…There was shooting, and bombardment going on…You have to get the governments of other countries to cooperate with you. This is what a Vishwa Bandhu foreign policy works like. We had to continuously contact the five countries which were neighbouring there,” said Jaishankar
