US NSA postpones India visit amid unrest in West Asia

Tribune News Service

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, April 16

The Iran-Israel tensions have led to US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan postponing his trip to India this week even as the Netanyahu government’s War Cabinet met for the third time on Tuesday to mull an adequate response to Tehran’s barrage and missiles on Sunday.

Sullivan was to meet NSA Ajit Doval to review the pace of US-India cooperation in critical technologies, which will now be held at the “next earliest possible date”, stated a US official statement.

Though German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrived in Tel Aviv to dissuade the Israeli Government from a retaliatory strike on Iran, Israel’s Military Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi maintained that the first-ever assault on Israeli soil “will be met with a response”.

US President Joe Biden told the Israeli PM that Washington would not participate in an Israeli counterstrike.

Iran had launched the attack in retaliation for an airstrike on its embassy compound in Damascus on April 1. Jordan said Israel’s insistence on retaliation was meant to “steal” away attention from its unabated assault on Gaza. Its Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Tuesday that the international community should stop Netanyahu from this course.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he was “leading a diplomatic attack”, writing to 32 countries to ask them to place sanctions on Iran’s missile programme. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the US would use sanctions and work with allies to keep disrupting Iran’s “malign and destabilising activity”.

A belligerent Iran said its response to any Israeli counterattack would come in “a matter of seconds, as Iran will not wait for another 12 days to respond”. Russia, China and Qatar have backed Iran. In a conversation between Chinese and Iranian Foreign Ministers, Beijing said Iran could “handle the situation well and spare the region further turmoil”. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a call to his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi, called for restraint in order to avoid a regional conflagration. Raisi also spoke to Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and emphasised the ongoing plight of Palestinians in Gaza.

Meanwhile, four Israeli soldiers were wounded inside Lebanese territory after exchanging fire with the Lebanese Hezbollah militia.

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