External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday said that India supports a homeland for the Palestinians and is public about its stand.
Referring to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the Israel-Palestine issue, Jaishankar, while speaking at Gargi College on Vishwa Bandhu Bharat, 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.”
Jaishankar said that when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year, India took a clear stance and said it was terrorism. He, however, reiterated that civilian lives are protected and there should be a humanitarian corridor during war.
“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,” Jaishankar said.
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He said that on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’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, ” Jaishankar said.
In March, Jaishankar, while interacting with the Indian community in Malaysia, said Palestinians have been “denied the right to their homeland”.
“The fact is whatever the rights and wrongs of the issue, there is the underlying issue of the rights of the Palestinians and the fact that they have been denied their homeland,” he said during a visit to Malaysia.
He has reiterated the two-state solution to resolve the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict and said there are “very serious efforts” underway to bring about a permanent solution to the issue.