By RAMESH RAMACHANDRAN
New Delhi, Feb. 18: Israel has no quarrel with the Iranian people but it has problems with the Government of Iran headed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Israel’s ambassador to India Mark Sofer said on Monday.
The Iranian President’s approach to Israel and Holocaust is "reprehensible" and "devilish" and it has no place in a civilised world, he told reporters on the sidelines of a function hosted by the Indian Council of World Affairs.
"Israel has no quarrel with the Iranian people," Mr Sofer said, adding that Israel never has and will never call for the eradication of Iran. He was responding to a question about how the Israeli Government viewed the Arab states seeking to engage with Iran.
Egypt and the six Arab states that are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have made overtures towards Iran. India is expected to step up her ties with Iran when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits Tehran later in 2008.
On Monday, the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) held talks with Iranian leaders in Tehran on a visit aimed at further boosting strong trade links with the Persian Gulf nation.
The UAE is a member of the six-member GCC, which also includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman. The GCC invited Mr Ahmadinejad to its summit in Qatar in December 2007.
The Israeli ambassador welcomed India’s stand on the West Asian peace process. "India’s support for the pragmatic government of Palestine headed by Mr Mahmoud Abbas has a partner and that partner is Israel," he said.
Israel, he elaborated, has no difficulty with India’s "macro" approach to the conflict in West Asia.
The Israeli envoy’s remarks on the Iranian President amplify what the Israeli Government headed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been saying. Tel Aviv has maintained that it has no choice but to take a worst-case scenario, if Mr Ahmadinejad means what he says. It has said that Israel cannot afford the luxury of dismissing Mr Ahmadinejad’s comments out of hand and it believes that the present Iranian leadership is a major irritant and danger to peace in West Asia.
According to Israeli sources, the West Asia peace process is "doable", with a little bit of "luck". The Annapolis Summit showed to the Palestinians that they have the support of serious international community to move forward, they insisted.
The sources said that Israel and Palestine need to agree on a narrative of future before they can try to come to an agreement on a narrative of history, which remains a contentious issue.
The sources pointed out that there is a growing acknowledgement in Israel that peace will bring about security and not the other way round. Also, Israel and Palestine have moved away from a zero-sum game and today, both sides are trying to solve a conflict rather than win a victory.
Israel and the pragmatic governments in Palestine, Egypt and Jordan believe that any solution of the West Asian conflict will need to address the following: Defining of the borders, cessation of violence, status of Jerusalem, and refugees.
The sources sought to suggest that the issue of Jerusalem is difficult but not impossible to resolve. However, Israel will not agree to the return of refugees because that would only lead to the perpetuation of conflict.
For Tel Aviv, there is also the problem of how to accommodate Gaza and West Bank although options like having a viaduct are not ruled out. There cannot be divorce of one country into two, the sources said, before hastening to add that if compromise is the order of the day, then there will be compromise.