Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (FNA) – Tehran said New Delhi should have considered the launch of an Israeli spy satellite from a political standpoint and not take into account only commercial interests, reminding that the Zionist regime and the US strive to drive a wedge between Iran and its friends.
The satellite, blasted into orbit from southern India on January 21, is reported by the Israeli press to have the ability to see through clouds, carry out day and night all-weather imaging and will be used to spy on Iran’s suspect nuclear program.
“The Indian government says the issue is a technical and commercial one, but we hope the issue could be considered from the political point of view. Our relationship with India is very strong and good. Many are trying to destroy the relationship between Iran and other friendly countries such as India. I hope the people and the government are wise and understanding. We hope that an independent and wise country like India will not give their space technology to launch any instruments of espionage. Our officials have expressed our point of view,” Iran’s Ambassador to India Seyed Mahdi Nabizadeh told newspersons in New Delhi on Monday.
“The US continues to be hostile and even today is trying to create problems between Iran and its friendly countries. We expect friendly countries to realize this fact and not affect their relationship with Iran,” he said.
The launch was carried out under a commercial contract between Israel Aerospace Industries and Antrix, the marketing arm of India’s space agency, and is seen by India as another boost for its bid to win more international satellite launch business.
Israel is a vocal enemy of Iran and has repeatedly threatened that it has all options on the table to strike at the Islamic Republic.
Asked about the status of India’s request for access to Afghanistan through the Iranian port of Chabar since both countries had a stake in stabilizing Kabul, the Nabizadeh restricted his observations to hoping that India, Iran and Pakistan, countries with immediate stakes for stability in the region, would cooperate in rebuilding Afghanistan.
“Iran and India have very good cooperation. They are continuing to cooperate.”
On the United Arab Emirates’ grant of a military base to France close to Iran’s borders, the Ambassador said, “As we have experienced, giving base to a superpower is not in the interest of that country. We hope it would realize the consequences and it would not be long-term.”
He warned that any attempt by Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities would spell devastation for the region.
“I hope that countries in the region would not let Israel make such an attack. It will impact and be devastative for countries of the region.”
On nuclear energy, the Ambassador pointed out that Iran was a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which had “always overseen our activity.” Iran requires 20,000 MW of nuclear energy of which only 5 per cent would be provided by the Bushehr power plant.
Maintaining that Iran had given answers to most of the questions posed by the IAEA, he said the international body had never reported any diversion of Iran’s nuclear program.
