The ceasefire was brokered in coordination with Israel. The only problem was that one hour after it was supposed to enter into effect, the Iranians fired two ballistic missiles at Israel, and Israel decided to retaliate. At that point, President Trump was concerned… We are very grateful to him for his role not only in assisting Israel but also in brokering the ceasefire. He was concerned that the ceasefire might collapse, and therefore, he called our Prime Minister and asked him to withhold the retaliation, which we did.

So we now have a ceasefire that is stable, and we are going back to normal life in Israel after 12 days.

Do you think Israel has achieved what it set out to do?

Absolutely. We have very seriously decimated Iran’s nuclear programme, because not only did we actually attack its facilities together with the Americans, but we hit dozens of nuclear activity locations, including, most importantly, the clandestine group that was assembling a nuclear device. That actually gives us confidence that the Iranians will not be able to, for several years at least, build a nuclear weapon.

Your thoughts on President Trump as the mediator, because somewhere in between, he expressed frustration.

There was some frustration because he expected the ceasefire to take effect smoothly, and that didn’t happen. So it required additional attention, and he was impatient to get to the result. Ultimately, we have managed to get to the result.

Do you think it will force Iran’s hand to abandon its nuclear programme?

There are attempts to downplay the Israeli achievement. But it’s very clear that we have achieved our aim, that the Iranians haven’t been able to prevent us from taking action, that they are exposed and vulnerable. And if they try to reconstitute the military nuclear programme, we will have to act again.
And therefore we support returning to diplomacy. Unfortunately, after decades of attempts, including the attempt of President Trump to offer them a deal to refrain from having a nuclear military programme, the Iranians refused.

Do you think the talks that the US and Iran were having on the nuclear programme can still proceed, because Iran is supposed to have said that they never left the table.

Talks may be important, but they are important if they lead to a result. And if the parties that are part of the talks are serious about getting to a result. The Iranians were deceiving the international community, using the opportunity to talk while racing into a nuclear weapon. If that stops, we have a prospect of more stability in the future.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often advocated diplomacy, saying that solutions cannot be found on the battlefield. PM Modi and PM Netanyahu had a call on day one when the conflict started. What was the conversation about?

Well, Prime Minister Netanyahu presented to Prime Minister Modi the reasons why we have decided to go to this operation. We are happy that Prime Minister Modi got the call and that he listened carefully to our presentation and our motivation. Most leaders in the world, including our Indian friends, understand that. And Israel is not in the business of initiating wars for the sake of violence. We are a democracy and we act only in a situation in which we are left with no choice.

When India conducted Operation Sindoor, it also sought to put forth its views to its friends across the world… Israel was among the countries that supported India’s action and India’s position.

We have supported India’s right to self-defence. We are happy that the ceasefire was restored. We are back to promoting our economic agendas. We want to sign a mutual investment agreement with India. We are in advanced negotiations on that.

We would like to start negotiations on a trade deal. We are hosting more than 40,000 Indian guest workers. And we are working to enhance our cooperation on technology. So our hands are full. The ceasefires both here (in India) and in West Asia that have been established are a great jumpstart to go back to things we are good at — promoting prosperity and peace.

How do you see things moving on from here? What next for Israel, Israel-Iran and Israel-US?

We will have to bring back our hostages in Gaza and make sure that Hamas doesn’t rearm. And we are going to apply a combination of military pressure and diplomacy to bring all our hostages. With Iran, we hope that diplomacy will be successful in creating a verifiable mechanism to make sure that Iran doesn’t reconstitute their plans for extermination. And we will work together with our partners around the world.