Doval's Secret trips to Israel and Iran

Samar Rathi

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Secret trips to West Asia
- Doval's visits seek to balance ties with Israel and Iran
Charu Sudan Kasturi

Ajit Doval

New Delhi, Sept. 6: National security adviser Ajit Doval made secret trips to Israel and Iran in late August as part of a diplomatic thrust into West Asia that seeks to balance ties with the two rivals.

Doval visited Israel's biggest nuclear facility, two senior officials independently confirmed to The Telegraph. In Iran, they said, Doval asked about the possibility of India's navy using the Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman.

In both countries, Doval also discussed key upcoming visits. President Pranab Mukherjee is expected to visit Israel next month, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi may travel to both Israel and Iran within the next one year.

Doval's visits followed Modi's United Arab Emirates trip on August 16-17. They have not been made public because of the sensitive nature of the subjects he took up and the tensions that divide West Asia, the officials said.

But the secret trips underscore India's focus on developing a blueprint for strategic cooperation with West Asia, something foreign secretary S. Jaishankar had first hinted at in July after delivering a lecture in Singapore.

Doval's visits came amid a more public embrace by the Modi government of both Israel and Iran than India has witnessed in recent years, sparked by a growing recognition that some diplomatic balance between the two is critical for New Delhi's West Asia interests.

"You cannot sustain, in the long term, Indian interests in West Asia without maintaining strong relations with both Israel and Iran, and also with the Gulf countries," Talmiz Ahmed, former Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE, said from Dubai. "Let us reject the notion that India has to pick a side. It does not."

Doval is known to have made secret visits to conflict zones like Iraq for sensitive negotiations aimed at securing the release of trapped Indians, including nurses and workers held captive by the Islamic State. But his trips to Israel and Iran had a different context.

Israel, like India and Pakistan, is a known nuclear power that is not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Unlike India, though, Israel has not separated its civilian and military nuclear facilities -- and it's rare for a country to take a visiting national security adviser to a closely guarded strategic asset like the Negev nuclear facility near Dimona, 35km off the Dead Sea.

Tel Aviv is believed to have started the nuclear reactor in the late 1950s with French assistance, but very little is formally known and confirmed about its nuclear programme.

The airspace above the facility is closed. A Libyan civilian plane was shot down by Israeli troops in 1973, killing 108 passengers, after it refused to change its course.

Doval's visit to the facility points to the deepening strategic trust between India and Israel although officials remain unwilling to confirm explicitly any plans for formal nuclear cooperation.

Dimona is home to the largest Indian-origin population in Israel -- over 7,500 Indian-origin Jews --- and Modi is likely to visit the city when he travels to that country.

In Iran, India had committed in May to investing $200m to develop the Chabahar port. Officially, India wants to use the port only for transit and trade, as a gateway to land-locked Central Asia.

But in meetings with Iranian officials during his visit, Doval discussed the possibility of a more long-term base for the Indian navy, a dramatic proposal that could not have been made on a trip known publicly.

Doval's secret visits followed a meeting between Modi and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Ufa, Russia, on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit there in July where they agreed to "significantly upgrade the bilateral relationship". Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif visited India last month.

Modi also met Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu in New York last September, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Later, on Netanyahu's birthday, Modi wished him publicly on Twitter, calling him his "friend".

Israel's defence minister, Moshe Ya'alon, is expected to make a second trip in one year to India by December. He had also visited in February.

Doval's trips are of a piece with the Modi government's larger West Asia focus in recent months.

In April, New Delhi had led evacuation efforts from war-torn Yemen, pulling out not only 4,600 Indians but also over 1,000 people from 25 other countries. Diplomats here have described the initiative as emblematic of Modi's hopes about a more assertive role in the region.

On July 20, answering questions at a Singapore think tank where he had just delivered a lecture, Jaishankar hinted that the government was preparing a blueprint for West Asia.

"A country like India will set out its own goals for different parts of the world, and we will come up with something for the Middle East as well," Jaishankar had said.

Modi made his first trip to the region last month, visiting the UAE before India hosted the Emirati foreign minister this past week.

Romancing Israel and Iran simultaneously, though, is tricky. Israel has been the most vocal in criticising the US and other global powers for striking a nuclear agreement with Iran, under which sanctions against Tehran may be eased.

But it can be done, Ahmed argued.

"Is it a diplomatic challenge? Yes," the former diplomat said. "Is it impossible? Not at all."
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150907/jsp/frontpage/story_41200.jsp#.Ve1sbREVjIU

@pmaitra @jouni @bose @jackprince @Srinivas_K
 

Alien

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If it was a secret trip, why the hell that came in the news? :shock:
 

Rowdy

Co ja kurwa czytam!
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:lol:
Not a secret anymore.............. ;)
 

sorcerer

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^^
The objectives are achieved or some process set in motion.
This will be followed by diplomats visiting both nations..to further the cause and protecting Indian interests in the region.
May be the shelf life of this secret is over and its now out in public domain.

and it's rare for a country to take a visiting national security adviser to a closely guarded strategic asset like the Negev nuclear facility near Dimona, 35km off the Dead Sea.

..

Doval's visit to the facility points to the deepening strategic trust between India and Israel although officials remain unwilling to confirm explicitly any plans for formal nuclear cooperation.
This...I Iikezzzz
 

Samar Rathi

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If it was a secret trip, why the hell that came in the news? :shock:
Secret from Media and people so they don;t screw it by doing stupid tv shows and ruin it.Now it's achieved or pass the phase where it could be sabotaged by NGO's or prestitutes so deliberately leaked.

(as for dushman secret agencies bhai they already know lol)

@SajeevJino
 

bengalraider

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Israel has a proven capability in terms of nuclear warhead miniaturization and long range SLCM capability. Would be good if we got some help from them regarding either.
 

Mikesingh

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Is it part of a Geo-strategic boxing in of Pakistan? Our diplomacy seems to be in high gear what with military and diplomatic interactions with countries such as Iran, Afghanistan, Israel, and the UAE who don't have any love lost for Pakistan.
 

bose

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The welcome change the present government has brought about is the proactive decision making and positive push for India's geo political interests... I would say Modi government strong point is its foreign policy and makeover of national interests...

It is a very difficult task of balancing between Israel & Iran, we need both of them at the same time, Iran will provide the much need access point to central Asia and also a listening post for Chinese navel activity in and around the Pakistani waters...

Israel is providing the much needed key technology not available anywhere else... I believe there are some sensitive nuclear collaborations that are not in public domain...
 

FRYCRY

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good job by modi and doval , i've also heard dawood ibrahim's UAE property has been sealed
 

sorcerer

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India among top buyers of Israel’s 40% weapon exports to Asia

TEL AVIV –India as the second-largest single market is among top buyers of Israel’s 40 percent of annual weapon exports to Asia, while the Jewish state is considered among the top 10 military exporters in the world, according to Yossi Melman, a security commentator and co-author of Spies Against Armageddon.

With $7.4 billion weapon sales in 2012, the figures will rise in 2016, the paper quoted Israel defence officials as saying. In his latest report to The Jerusalem Post newspaper, Melman wrote that India was close to concluding three major deals, worth around $3 billion,with Israelahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s planned visit to the Middle Easten nation.

“These (deals) include joint development of a medium-range surface-to-air missile system for the Indian Army; the acquisition of 164 Litening-4 laser-designation pods for the Indian Air Force fighters such as the Soviet-built Sukhoi Su-30 and the Anglo-French Jaguar, as well as 250 advanced Spice precision stand-off bombs, capable of taking out fortified ‘enemy’ underground command centres, and 321 Spike anti-tank guided missile systems and 8,356 missiles,” it said.

After his meeting with Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Poland’s Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz also confirmed a $1billion long-delayed deal to buy advanced drones for the Polish Army.The General Atomics, and American defence giant and manufacturer of the Predator drone, had also set its eyes on the lucrative contract.

After secret talks, it was agreed that the US administration would back off and, in return, Israel would not pursue its campaign to sell an anti-missile defence system to Warsaw. The Israeli system is based on technology used in the Iron Dome, for short-range missiles, and David’s Sling, which can intercept rockets and cruise missiles ? complementary systems that were developed by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defence Systems and Raytheon in the US.

The deal is that the Polish government, instead, will procure the US Patriot anti- missile system, built by Raytheon, or Lockheed Martin’s Medium Extended Air Defence System (MEADS). The contract is estimated to be worth $4 billion, including maintenance and overhaul. The three-way discussions between Polish government, the US and Israeli authorities leave the competing French defence industry completely out in the cold.

Israeli’s Elbitcompany - if the deal indeed materializes – willsupply at least 20 drone systems of its Hermes 450 and Hermes 900 models with ground stations and additional equipment. Poland – considered one of Israel’s best friends in the EU and the two have very close military and intelligence cooperation – will manufacture the secret encryption and communication systems.

Melman, the commentator, pointed out that security cooperation has a good chance to improve, as the right-wing governments in Warsaw and Jerusalem have common ideological views. “It is a historic irony that such a development is being led by a Polish minister who, at least in the past, said he believed in an international Jewish conspiracy,” he said.

https://www.ibcworldnews.com/2016/05/09/india-among-top-buyers-of-israels-40-weapon-exports-to-asia/
 

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