Iran unhappy with India’s launch of Israeli spy satellite

By IANS

New Delhi : Unhappy with India’s help in launching an Israeli spy satellite, Iran has asked New Delhi to desist from allowing other countries to launch “spying operations” from its territory.


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“We hope that wise and independent countries should not provide space and technology to countries who are undertaking spying operations on Iran,” Iranian ambassador to India Seyed Mahdi Nabizadeh told reporters here Tuesday.

He was answering a query on Iran’s position on the Jan 21 launch of an Israeli spy satellite by India’s space agency.

While Iran has not lodged a formal protest, its concerns have been conveyed informally to the Indian establishment, he said.

Nabizadeh said Indian officials had explained that the launch was purely a “commercial decision”, but he maintained that the “issue should be considered from the political perspective”.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched Tescar, also referred to as Polaris, from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh under a commercial contract.

The launch had been kept under wraps to prevent any pressure from the Indian government’s own allies as well as foreign governments.

“Many (countries) are trying to destroy Iran’s bilateral ties with other countries. We hope that people and governments are very wise and should not be influenced by such propaganda,” said Nabizadeh.

Iranian officials, however, said that they were not perturbed about the launch of the spy satellite as there were already two Israeli spy satellites hovering over Iran.

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