The Israel'қ Embassy in Uzbekistan held a press briefing on Iran crisis on Tuesday, March 3. The Israel’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Uzbekistan Gideon Lustig in his opening remarks said that Israel and the United States’ joint operation was prompted by the deteriorating security in the entire region.
The operation is not an act of aggression, but a necessary preventive measure, he added. “The goal of the operation is to avert an existential threat posed by Iran that could materialize in the near future. This is not a situational escalation but a decision that could no longer be postponed”.
The Ambassador Lustig noted that media coverage in Uzbekistan and the region often focuses on operational reports — strikes and military maneuvers — while deeper analysis of the underlying causes remains largely absent. He stressed that the main question for many today is why events in the Middle East escalated to a critical phase at this particular time.
He stated that Iran’s leadership had for decades openly expressed intentions to destroy Israel. “Israel has long identified three key areas in which Iran is building its military strategy: the nuclear weapon program, the ballistic missile program, and support for armed groups in the region”.
“Iran sharply accelerated uranium enrichment, bringing it to 60 percent, while long-range missile production over the past year has been expedited. This was a key factor prompting Tel Aviv and Washington to conclude that further delay was no longer possible.”
According to reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency, Tehran possesses significant quantities of highly enriched uranium. Despite strikes on its facilities last year, Iran has not abandoned its nuclear infrastructure and continues active enrichment.
The Ambassador noted that Israel considers it unacceptable for Iran to develop a military component of its nuclear program. “All prior diplomatic and deterrent efforts had failed, while Iranian weapons programs continued to advance”. He underscored that the decision was difficult for Israel’s leadership, but inaction, in their calculation, would have led to far worse consequences.
He also condemned Iran’s unprovoked attacks on civilian and oil facilities in Gulf countries and beyond and touched upon the concern of the Uzbek authorities. “I know that it's a concern for countries like Uzbekistan that relн heavily on the economic corridors that exist north to south.”
“And of course, being an Ambassador of Israel in Uzbekistan, I totally understand the core of these worries. But my answer is that Iran is not stable as a partner. How many times have the Iranians abducted ships in the strait of Hormuz in the recent years for their own political goals? How many times did the Houthis of Yemen, Iran’s big allies and being supported by Iranian regime, abducted, took over and tried to sink down international ships that were carrying goods from one place to another.”
“We are conducting this operation because we've assessed that it is the last chance to stop Iran from achieving nuclear capability, as Iran remains a major threat to the stability in the region.”
“And the Iranian people deserve to have another leadership and it's up to them to do it. This operation is not a start of an endless conflict. What Israel wants is to eliminate the existential threat posed by Iran,” the Ambassador noted in his concluding statement.
