India ultimately supports a homeland for Palestinians: External Affairs Minister Jaishanka

Referring to the conflict in the Middle East and the Israel-Palestine issue, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday said that ultimately, India supports a homeland for Palestinians and is public about its stance.

Speaking at Gargi College on Vishwa Bandhu India, Jaishankar said, “So you have a very tense, very complex situation which involves Israel, which involves the Palestinians, which involves several Arab countries, which involves the Gulf monarchies, which involves Iran. Is included. “A few days ago there was a clash between Iranians and Israelis, they fired at each other.”

“Now, let us see how a Vishwa Bandhu will deal with this situation. When terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, we were very clear that this is terrorism. We took a clear stand on this. When Israel responded, we also took the stance that whenever there is a military response, it is very important that civilian lives are protected. And if you are displacing civilians, so that they are no longer in their homes, you have to create some kind of humanitarian corridor there. We have also, when Israel and Iran started firing at each other,” Jaishankar said.

In his address at Gargi College, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar also shared that, on the instructions of the Prime Minister, he personally contacted the foreign ministers of the parties concerned, expressing regional concerns and urging restraint.

“On the instructions of the Prime Minister I personally called both the foreign ministers there and basically told them, look, the entire region is worried. I mean, we urge you, don’t move forward with this. And today, actually when we are doing all this, and by the way, in the context of the Middle East, we ultimately support a homeland for the Palestinians and we are very public about that too,” Jaishankar said.

Jaishankar also noted India’s practical contribution to the situation, with about 20 ships deployed in the Red Sea to reduce attacks on shipping, which disrupt trade and increase costs.

“We still make a practical contribution today. We actually have about 20 ships in the Red Sea, making sure that these attacks on shipping, which increase the cost of trade, are limited. So I say to you again, just think how many parties there are, Israelis, Palestinians, Arab countries, Iranians, and yet we have actually been able to include them all,” the foreign minister said.

After this, Jaishankar also mentioned the Russia-Ukraine conflict that started in February 2022 and said, “We had requested the students to come home.” Most of the students stayed and found themselves in the conflict zone. They were in different cultures and different cities.

Highlighting the role of Vishwa Bandhu foreign policy, Jaishankar noted the continuous efforts to engage with neighboring countries to ensure safe evacuation of students.

“Here’s a challenge we faced in how to bring students from a conflict zone… Think about what it means in terms of how you achieved it. One was to initially make sure that as many people could come as quickly as possible…There was shooting and bombing going on…You have to get the governments of other countries to cooperate with you. This is how Vishwa Bandhu foreign policy works. Jaishankar said, we had to continuously contact the five countries which were neighbors there