India’s deployment in Lebanon a ‘peace mission’: Ambassador to Baghdad

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - India has nearly 1,000 troops in Lebanon in a peacekeeping capacity to ensure safety and security amid recent escalations between Hezbollah and Israel, India’s ambassador to Iraq said on Monday.

“There [already] is a huge presence of the Indian army which is part of the United Nations peace mission,” India’s Ambassador to Baghdad Prashant Pise told Rudaw’s Dilniya Rahman in a televised interview. “There are about 800 to 900 Indian army [units] who are based [there] to ensure peace and security in Lebanon." 

Pise added that India is closely monitoring the situation, and New Delhi believes “the entire region needs to go through peaceful solutions.”

Tensions between Israel and Iran-backed groups in the Middle East have been exasperated with the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital on Wednesday. Tehran blamed Israel and vowed retaliation; however, Israel has denied its involvement.

Haniyeh was assassinated a day after Israel claimed responsibility for an airstrike killing Fuad Shukr (or Sayyid Mushan), the right-hand man of Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and the group’s senior military commander in Beirut.

Ambassador Pise further detailed that India has provided humanitarian aid to Palestinians since the start of the Hamas-Israel conflict in October 2023.

"We give a lot of humanitarian aid to Palestine,” he said. “In fact, just... two weeks back, we offered five million dollars [in] humanitarian assistance to Palestinian people." 

Palestine is of particular importance to New Delhi, according to Pise, because of India’s many “capacity-building projects” in Palestine.