As the US-Israel war against Iran entered its third week, Israel’s Ambassador to India, Reuven Azar, said the military campaign was progressing in the “right direction”, asserting that the joint offensive with the US had significantly weakened Tehran’s capabilities, though more remained to be done to achieve its objectives.
Speaking at the India Today Conclave 2026 in New Delhi, Azar said Israel’s primary objective was to eliminate two existential threats posed by Iran — its ballistic missile programme and its nuclear weapons programme — and claimed that significant progress had already been made towards achieving those goals.
“The aim was to remove two existential threats — the massive ballistic missile programme that the Iranians were planning to build to around 20,000 missiles, which would allow them to obliterate any country in the region, and the nuclear programme. Their army of proxies was preparing strikes, and Tehran was attempting to hide its nuclear capabilities. It was at this point that we decided to hit the country,” he said.
Azar said Iran’s ability to launch attacks had diminished considerably during the course of the conflict, even though Israelis were still frequently forced into shelters due to missile and drone strikes from Iran and Hezbollah.
“So what we are seeing now is that their capability to fire at us and others has diminished quite substantially. We are still sending hundreds of thousands of people to shelters in Israel because of attacks from Iran and Hezbollah, but the damage they are causing is much less,” he said.
Giving an example, the envoy said that while Iranian strikes had destroyed 30 buildings in Israel in June, the latest wave of attacks had managed to destroy only two.
“We are hunting down their missile launchers all the time. We are looking at the Basij forces and other military forces that have escaped their headquarters. So we still have a way to go,” he said, adding that Israel had warned from the outset that the conflict could take several weeks.
Azar said Israel had already struck around 15,000 military targets in Iran since the beginning of what it calls Operation Roaring Lion, which began on February 28.
“They are not okay. They have no naval force and no air force. We are on the right path,” he said.
He added that Israel’s aim was to either force Tehran to change its course or permanently degrade its ability to attack Israel.
“We want to get into a situation, either of two things. Either the Iranians change course, and the other option is that we will neutralise their capability to hit us to the extent that we will be able to finish this war, and continue pounding them each time that we feel they are trying to reconstitute their weapons,” he said.
Azar also criticised Iran for expanding the conflict by targeting interests across the region, including shipping routes and infrastructure in the Middle East.
“The fact that the Iranians chose to target even those that they claim are their friends is very unfortunate. But it is not surprising because they have been terrorising and using extortion in our region for the last three or four decades,” he said.
According to him, Iran’s actions were aimed at pushing the international community to intervene and stop Israel and the United States, but the response had been the opposite.
The Ambassador pointed to a recent UN Security Council resolution, co-sponsored by India, saying that more than 130 countries had effectively sent a message to Iran to halt its actions.
Azar also warned that securing the Strait of Hormuz and ensuring safe civilian shipping would be one of the key challenges ahead, noting that Iran had targeted vessels passing through the crucial maritime corridor.
Despite the uncertainty over whether the Iranian regime itself would change, the envoy said Israel had succeeded in weakening Tehran’s military capabilities and expanding intelligence operations inside the country.
“I think we are not sure whether this regime will change, but at least we have removed two existential threats and the regime is getting much weaker. They are trying to project the opposite,” he said.
Referring to claims made earlier by Iran’s Ambassador to India, Mohammad Fathali, that Tehran remained strong, Azar dismissed the assertion.
“They are not okay. They no longer have a naval force, they no longer have an air force, and many of their production sites have been destroyed. I think we are on a good path,” he said.
Azar said Israel did not seek war but argued that peace in the region would only be possible if Iran abandoned its long-standing goal of destroying Israel.
