‘Like Russia did in Ukraine’: Omar Abdullah condemns Israel’s Iran attack, flags 'silence' of the west

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has termed Israel's strike on Iran 'unjustified' and expressed regret over Western powers remaining silent, unlike their stance against Russia's attack on Ukraine.

“As far as I know, Iran did not give any reason to Israel for this strike. Israel waged war on a country by calling it a preemptive attack.. Israel did the same thing that Russia did in Ukraine,” Abdullah told reporters on 13 June.

New Wave of Attacks

Explosions and buzzing drones were being heard as Israel and Iran exchanged a new wave of attacks on Saturday morning, according to New York Times.

Israeli fighter jets and drones unleashed destruction and death across parts of Iran on Friday night and into Saturday morning in an attack on Tehran’s nuclear sites and military leadership.

The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, and the chief of staff of its armed forces, Mohammad Bagheri, were among those killed in Israel's wave of raids, with replacements swiftly named by supreme leader Ali Khamenei, news agency AFP reported.

"It will be a matter of extreme regret if the world's great powers remain silent on this... The big powers of the world, like America and Europe, raise their voices against Russia, but in the matter of Israel, they remain silent. If it is wrong for a country to attack another country, as in the case of Russia, then here too, it is not justified for Israel to attack Iran," he added.

The strikes prompted a retaliatory barrage of missiles from Iran, some of which slammed into buildings in Tel Aviv, killing at least one person and injuring dozens, the NYT said.

Abdullah warned of the situation becoming escalatory and its impact on India.

"Of course, the situation will escalate. It has an immediate impact on us. It will impact our fuel prices, stock market, and flights that have to fly to the West. But more than that, it will impact the sentiments of the people," the Chief Minister said.

Israel-Iran War

In a video statement on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a "very successful opening strike" carried out by Israeli forces. He said Israel, through its large-scale military operation that he named 'Rising Lion', targeted "Iran's main enrichment facility" and "Iran's leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb."

"We also struck at the heart of Iran's ballistic missile program," Netanyahu said.

The military operation, Netanyahu said, is aimed at dismantling what he described as an existential threat posed by Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

"Moments ago, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival," Netanyahu said in the video statement that was posted on X, adding that the mission would continue "for as many days as it takes to remove this threat."

Netanyahu accused Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons programme despite global warnings, noting that Tehran has stockpiles of enriched uranium capable of producing multiple nuclear bombs.

"In recent years, Iran has produced enough highly enriched uranium for nine atom bombs. Nine," he said, warning that Iran could develop a nuclear weapon within months.

(With ANI and NYT inputs)