FPJ Dialogue: Israel Consul General Yaniv Revach Outlines West Asia Crisis Amid Ongoing Iran Nuclear Tensions And Global Economic Shockwaves

Mumbai: Almost two months after the US-Israel and Iran war began, the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked, and the world economy is hit hard. Amid the deadlock and rising tensions, Yaniv Revach, Consul General of Israel in Mumbai, a senior diplomat and a former captain of the Israel Defense Forces, visited the Free Press Journal office on Wednesday to discuss the current situation in West Asia and Israel’s stand. Excerpts..

What is the current situation? Iran still has 400 kilograms of enriched uranium. How will you ensure it does not have nuclear capability?

It is very complicated. The main purpose of this operation is to eliminate their nuclear capability and long-range ballistic missile threats towards Israel and to stop Iran from supporting its proxies in the region. The Israeli planes that attacked Iran could not destroy the entire nuclear facility in the compound, as it was deep underground. We can see from the last few weeks that the Iranians are deploying heavy equipment, digging the compound and rescuing the materials that survived in the facility after our attacks.

The current situation is that Iran continues to block the Strait of Hormuz. Iran and its proxies are projecting themselves as victorious, which is completely untrue. Their economy has collapsed, they have no major infrastructure left, but they continue to block the Strait of Hormuz. From their point of view, surviving these long attacks and not being willing to compromise is victory.

President Donald Trump is very clear that Iran would not be able to maintain their nuclear capabilities in the future, and the enriched uranium must be evacuated.

I don’t think there is any other option but to resume the attack and try to pressure the Iranian regime more than before. We want to highlight that we have no problem with the Iranian people, but with their regime.

Are you looking at the nuclear material being moved out of Iran to a third country like Russia?

The main suggestion in the initial dialogues was that the Americans could keep the uranium. But, yes, we have an option that it can be transferred to a third country.

You say Iran is the biggest destabilising force in the Middle East. What do you think of the role played by Qatar?

Qatar is playing a double-standard game. They light the fire and come with extinguishers to douse it.

How comfortable are you with Pakistan playing the peace-maker's role between the US and Iran?

Horrible. I don’t think they can deliver. How can a country that promotes terrorism mediate? We can't trust such a country.

We stress that Israel did not initiate the attack on Iran. It was an American initiative by President Donald Trump, and we joined. So now, when they go for peace agreements, we will follow the US. President Trump thought Pakistan could be a good mediator, and I cannot criticise the US, as we never saw a better president than Trump, who is supportive towards Israel and understood how difficult the situation was and how Iran is the real problem.

After weeks of bombing and its terrifying impacts on the world economy, there is a stalemate. Do you see any peace coming in the near future in West Asia?

We see that peace is possible as Israel has a peace agreement with Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain etc. We also had a dialogue recently with the Lebanese government and Saudi Arabia. So peace is possible to achieve, but there is a regime that tries to destabilise not only Israel but the entire region. And I am talking about the proxies of Iran, which finance and trade advanced weapons to the terrorist organisations. The ties between Iran regime and these proxies should be cut who try to destabilise the Gulf states.

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Israel is known for its superior intelligence network. How come you failed to foresee the October 7 attack?

It is a really hard question, and people want to understand what happened. There is a committee set up to investigate exactly what went wrong so that we can prevent such events in the future. Although there are a few conflicts between the Israeli government and opposition, but the committee will continue its investigation and find answers.

It has been more than two years since Israel is in a war-like situation. How are the citizens coping with these tensions?

Israelis are very strong; they are used to facing conflicts, but rise high in life. However, after the horrifying October 7 attack, where their friends and family members were assaulted, killed, and women raped. It was a very difficult time. Now, after two and a half years, people are tired. It is not easy to survive in such tensions for years, and we need peace.

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