New Delhi, June 1 (IANS) Israel’s Ambassador to India, Reuven Azar, on Monday said that Iran will continue facing pressure, including through the naval blockade, until it agrees to the terms that the United States has put forward.

“We have to be stubborn because Iranians are trying to reverse the result of this military confrontation. They have been defeated… They must renounce the two existential threats they built against Israel and the region and the US President is being stubborn about it. I don’t think he is going to renounce his goals and Iran will continue facing pressure, including through the naval blockade, until it agrees to the terms that the United States has put forward,” Azar told IANS in an interview.

The Israeli diplomat stated that there is a “very clear demand” to eliminate the military nuclear programme and “sufficient military pressure” has already been applied on Iran to renounce it.

“There is a very clear demand to eliminate the military nuclear programme. I think the Iranian regime has finally realised that being stubborn on this issue, as well as on their intentions to annihilate the state of Israel and create havoc in the region, is not paying off,” said Azar.

He highlighted the growing geopolitical alignments in the region “as a result of the threat” that the Iranian regime has been posing over the last few decades.

“You can see that there is a common interest among countries in the region, Israel, its neighbouring countries that are part of the Circle of Peace, Egypt, Jordan, the Abraham Accords countries, and more countries that are concerned about these threats. They are interested in removing these threats and are working behind the scenes with the United States to ensure that these threats are no longer emanating against them. We are working diligently on both the security and economic fronts to bring prosperity to this region.”

The Israeli Ambassador made it clear that both Israel and the US stand ready to take “further action” if Iran does not abandon its military nuclear goals.

“Whoever wants to act according to the law must respect the law. We have seen for decades the Iranian regime deceiving the international community and not meeting its legal commitments under the NPT framework and the IAEA. The IAEA has repeatedly issued reports stating that Iran is not in compliance. So, whoever wants to enjoy legal rights must respect the regime it is part of. Unfortunately, the Iranian regime has not been respecting the regime it has committed to,” he mentioned.

He stated further that Israel will “do whatever is necessary” to protect the communities in the north that have been repeatedly attacked by Hezbollah.

“We have seen more than a thousand rockets since the ceasefire began, as well as the use of UAVs, and unfortunately, 12 fatalities since then. We are not going to accept that situation. We will continue taking action until a sustainable ceasefire is achieved, in which Hezbollah refrains from attacking civilians.”

On the ongoing global energy crisis, he added, “What we are actually seeing is a drop in oil prices. It means that the international community has been able to cope with the situation. We hope to get a ceasefire as soon as possible that will bring back stability to the markets. I don’t think we have to hesitate when it comes to putting pressure on this regime because if we don’t, the prospects of a crisis, a much bigger one in the future, are going to be looming over our region and we don’t want that.”

–IANS

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