Israel helped India turn around Kargil war?
February 08, 2008 19:10 IST
In a startling revelation, the Israeli Ambassador in New Delhi, Mark Sofer, has said that **his country had assisted India in ‘turning around’ the situation during the 1999 Kargil war with Pakistan. **
In an interview with a weekly, the envoy disclosed how defence ties between the two countries got a boost after Kargil when Israel came to India’s rescue at a critical time, helping turn around the situation on the ground. ‘I think we proved to the Indian government that you can rely on us, that we have the wherewithal. A friend in need is a friend indeed,’ he said.
He also disclosed that Indo-Israeli defence ties would go beyond mere selling-buying of arms.
‘We do have a defence relationship with India, which is no secret. What is secret is what the defence relationship is? **And with all due respect, the secret part will remain secret,’ **he said in the interview to Outlook weekly magazine.
Do note that Kargil was an operation by the Pak miliitary, not by militant outfits supported by the ISI...the point being that the Indo-Israeli cooperation was targeted at Pakistan directly...not some trans-national terrorist outfit.
So, what do the anti-Arab types have to say about this?
Don't know about turning around the war, but israel did give(for which india paid the money) UAV's and perhaps critical ammunition during the war. Israelis wanted to take revenge for pakistans involvement in arab-israeli war and also, their involvement in kargil war gives them oppurtunity to get a pie of future defence purchases of india. They must have openly stated that they want to be the largest defence supplier to india taking over russia.
turn around??
India got more ppl killed there then 3 previous wars put together.
It still was a bad plan on pakistans part, we did get troups killed while retreating(after international pressure).
In the Kargil war, India used weapons and technology from its arsenal which included stuff bought from France, Sweden, Russia, Israel also. The UAVs from Israel were effective in hunting the intruders hiding in altitude vantage points. If this guy thinks that is "assisting" may be, but it was only as a vendor.
Since then ofcourse India-Israely cooperation has progressed a lot more and strategically.