India’s “Israeli” SAM Test Sent a Very Strong Signal to Iran

There’s no clearer indication that two parties are in a military-strategic alliance with one another than when one of them tests the high-tech weapons that they just jointly produced, which is exactly what India just did with “Israel’s” surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and in the process also sent a very strong signal to Iran about where its geopolitical loyalties really lie.

India is celebrating its navy’s successful test firing of a surface-to-air missile (SAM) that it jointly developed with “Israel“, regarding it as “a significant milestone in enhancing its Anti-Air Warfare Capability”. That may be true, but the test is also significant for an altogether different reason because of the very strong signal that it sent to Iran. There’s no clearer indication that two parties are in a military-strategic alliance with one another than when one of them tests the high-tech weapons that they produced together, which is exactly what India just did with “Israel’s” SAMs. The self-proclaimed “Jewish State” and the Islamic Republic are mortal enemies, and while India regularly claims that its policy of so-called “multi-alignment” isn’t aimed against any third party, it’s understandable that Iran would be concerned about its “Israeli” foe steadily gaining more influence over the South Asian state.

In fact, the Indian APB News Network published a piece last week titled “India, Israel, and the Geopolitics of an Emerging Tripartite Alliance” that included an important statistic that’s bound to catch the attention of any interested Iranian observer. The outlet wrote that “today India, the world’s second largest importer of arms and accounting for 9.5% of the global total, is Israel’s largest arms market just as Israel is the second largest exporter, after Russia, of arms to India. Over the past decade, Indian imports of Israeli arms have increased by 285 percent.” It even quoted Netanyahu as saying on the eve of his visit to India last January that “Israel’s” military-strategic partnership with the country “serves our security, economic, trade and tourism interests…This is a great blessing for the state of Israel.” While some might have dismissed his words as over-the-top rhetoric, the aforementioned military statistics prove that he wasn’t exaggerating.

Translating words into action and visibly showing the strength of their military-strategic partnership, the two just tested the high-tech SAMs that they jointly produced, which interestingly happened several days after India sent Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif back home empty-handed after he abruptly flew to New Delhi begging for his hosts to reconsider their decision to stop purchasing his country’s oil after the US lifted its sanctions waiver earlier this month. It should now be painfully clear to the Iranians that India didn’t just comply with those sanctions to satisfy the demands of its new Great Power patron, but also to take its alliance with “Israel” to the next level by confirming that it’s indeed “a great blessing” for its partner because its actions instantly exacerbated the already dire economic crisis in the Islamic Republic by depriving the country of its second-largest energy partner and the massive revenue that its purchases were supposed to contribute to the Iranian budget.

To add insult to injury, India proudly tested the high-tech SAMs that it jointly produced with “Israel” and therefore left no doubt where its geopolitical loyalties really lie when it comes to Iranian-“Israeli” tensions. It’s one thing for India to discontinue purchasing energy from Iran and replace its resources with Gulf ones and another altogether entirely to militarily team up with that country’s hated “Israeli” rival, but that’s exactly what New Delhi just did in sending an extremely strong signal to Tehran. Even so, judging by how desperate Iran must be to have urgently dispatched Zarif to India on his ultimately failed trip last week, it’s unclear whether the Islamic Republic will finally incorporate its famous anti-Zionist principle into its relations with the South Asian state or if it’ll swallow its pride and keep begging “Israel’s” new military-strategic ally to purchase its oil.


By Andrew Korybko
Source: Eurasia Future

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2 Comments

  1. Iranians must wake up soon. Yes Iran has handed itself over to India as a hostage in exchange for the Indian investment in Chabahar that even the Americans don’t seem to have an issue with… but enough has transpired since the beginning of 2019 to more than caution Iranians India must not be trusted.

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