Ex-R&AW Chief Warns of Inflation, Oil Crisis if West Asia Conflict Escalates

Sood, in an interview with ANI, talked about the challenges arising for India out of the West Asia conflict, and said that if India runs out of oil, it will cause inflation.

"The challenge will be there in 2 to 3 months when we run out of oil and fertilisers. Most of our LNG comes from Qatar, and most of our oil comes from the Arab, the Middle East. If that doesn't flow, and if it flows at a higher rate, there will be inflation. We will have to handle that. It is unfortunate for the government. They will have a tough time dealing with this," he said.

He said that India and Iran did not bring this situation upon themselves. But one must remember that India is dependent on Iran for the Strait of Hormuz.

He said, "Israel is our friend. We have close ties; we are dependent on them for a lot of things which relate to our security... But this attack on Iran and the assassination or murder of the prior leader tantamounts to murder and a state taking the law into its own hands," he said.

He further said that the US has joined the undeclared war against Iran.

"This is followed up by Americans joining in the same thing in an undeclared war against a country... We won't say that Israel is not our friend, but we will say that this killing was unfortunate and could have been avoided. There is no other position we can take. We are dependent on the Strait (of Hormuz), not on Iran... We didn't bring it upon ourselves, nor did Iran bring it upon us. It was brought upon us because of the attacks by the Israelis and the Americans," he said.

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have misread Iran in this conflict.

"From day one, the Netanyahu-Trump duo has misread Iran... They are putting up a fight, and they are doing it pretty well... There are a few who say that this is a deep plot to wipe out Iran forever and leave Israel in charge of the region... Only time will tell what the whole game is," he said.

Sood said that the war is clearly expanding. He signaled at conflicting reports that the US is keen to end the war soon, but Israel is not, and other reports that suggest both are together on the same boat.

"It is going downwards or upwards, however you define it. It is expanding, and the Americans are bringing in more weaponry and strike forces, airborne divisions and such. Is it a game they are playing to push the Iranians to agree to what they want, or is it serious? There is an opinion floating around that Netanyahu is very keen on extending the whole thing while Trump isn't... But there is another one which says they are both together in it," he said.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Al Jazeera that Trump "always prefers diplomacy", but warned Iran of "real consequences" over the partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

However, US White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday (local time) said during her Press Briefing that Trump has stated 4-6 weeks for conducting Operation Epic Fury.

"With respect to the timeline, again, the President, Commander-in-Chief, the Pentagon has always stated four to six weeks estimated timeline for Operation Epic Fury. We're on day 30 today. So again, you do the math on how much longer the Pentagon needs to fully achieve the objectives of Operation Epic Fury, which I will reiterate: destroy the Iranian Navy, destroy their ballistic missiles, dismantle their missile and drone production infrastructure, significantly weaken their proxies throughout the course of this operation, and then, of course, preventing Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon. The full reopening of the strait is something the administration is working towards, but the core objectives of the operation have been clearly defined for the American people by the Commander-in-Chief," she told reporters.

- ANI