Israeli envoy to Vatican says Iran conflict ‘most just war conceivable’

ROME – As global tensions build amid the current war in Iran, which is quickly morphing into a broader global conflict, Israel’s envoy to the Holy See defended their military intervention as necessary for achieving peace.

“It’s not just a war, it’s the most just war conceivable,” Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See Yaron Sideman told Crux Now, pointing down to at times violent crackdowns on protesters by the Iranian regime.

“This war, at this point, was inevitable” due to the continued development of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Sideman said, saying attempts at dialogue so far have proven ineffective.

Asked about the potential for a diplomatic solution, Sideman said, “I honestly don’t see how this regime is changing its mindset or course in any way that could bring us closer to a resolution of this in diplomatic means.”

“I’d be happy to be pleasantly surprised, but I just don’t see that right now,” he said.

In terms of the repeated calls of religious leaders such as Pope Leo for peace, he said the voices of religious leaders are important and must be respected but argued that peace will only come when military action has ensured it.

Please see below Crux Now’s interview with Ambassador Yaron Sideman:

Crux Now: During this new war with Iran, several holy sites have been hit by missile fragments…

Sideman: It was definitely proven yesterday [Monday] when fragments of an Iranian missile hit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Armenian Patriarchate, the Jewish Quarter, and the vicinity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, demonstrating that Iran is firing missiles indiscriminately toward densely populated civilian areas, towards Jerusalem, towards the holy sites in Jerusalem that belong to Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike. There is no differentiation there. It again highlights the danger and the threat of the Iranian regime in general. If you couple that with Iranian missiles that hit its neighboring countries, Muslim countries, hitting Europe, hitting Turkey, a British base in Cyprus, then you understand how indiscriminate it is with respect to who it targets. We are all in its disastrous path if we do not solve it.

Would you say that no attention in this war is being paid to religious sites and places of worship, prayer and peace. Are they being discarded?

I didn’t say that it’s being discarded. I’m saying that it is being disrespected by the Iranian regime. We are doing everything to protect [them]. Freedom of worship and freedom of religion are sacred to Israel. We do everything in our power to protect them. They are actually values that are enshrined in Israel’s declaration of independence. Not just freedom of religion to Jews, but to all religions that are present in Israel, certainly to the three Abrahamic religions. And while we’re doing everything to protect worshippers of all faiths in Israel’s capital and all over Israel, the Iranian regime is firing missiles towards the holy sites in Jerusalem that endanger Jews, Muslims and Christians alike.

Yesterday [Monday] was an illustration of that. It’s important to highlight it, because it signifies the lack of respect of this regime to any person, culture, country, society that does not adhere or succumb to its mindset which it wants to impose on the entire region and world. That’s what it set out to do, that’s why it is developing or has developed weapons of mass destruction for that purpose alone, which it clearly stipulated and articulated throughout the past decades. [Iran] was not shy about it.

This is an unfortunate development [with] this newest war. What was the motivation to start fighting again? The situation had calmed down after fighting last summer, so what was the reason for the United States and Israel to resume military action at this point?

A clear determination of the Iranian regime [that was] declared and put into practice to maintain course as it relates to developing its nuclear weapons and to protect it even further. Having learned of its vulnerabilities from the campaign in June, it set out and already was in the process of installing its military nuclear industry deep, deep underground where it would have been immune from further military or any other type of attempts to dismantle it.

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That we could not allow to happen because then Iran would have been plain and simple with military nuclear weapons and with ballistic capabilities which we see the harm of that today as they are firing ballistic missiles all over the Middle East and Europe. And so, it was at a point where all indications, intelligence and otherwise, made clear that if no action is taken to stop the Iranian regime from pursuing its ballistic missile and nuclear programs, at that point it will be difficult to impossible to do it later on.

It was hoped that the campaign in June will have persuaded the Iranian regime to take a different course of action. It didn’t. It continued with great ambition on its path to continue its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. What we’re seeing in the past couple of weeks of how it’s putting those into use makes it absolutely clear why it was important and vital and is important vital to prevent them from being able to do that.

Imagine the missiles they’re firing at its neighboring countries – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, all the Gulf countries, Emirates, Oman, Turkey, Cyprus. Being equipped with nukes or just having the ability to threaten firing a nuclear weapon, where they would put the Iranian regime, this very radical, extreme, terror-exporting regime, and the leverage it will give it over not just Israel and the region, but the entire world.

This is something that must be prevented, and unfortunately negotiations didn’t work, dialogue didn’t work, and even the operation in June, while it degraded their capabilities to a significant degree, did not eliminate them all together and did not get the regime to change course.

From the religious perspective, even more sacred than holy sites is the value of human life. What about the human cost of this war already, the casualties? I’m thinking specifically of the bombing of the girls’ school in Iran. What is your response to that and to the loss of human life so far?

There is a reason why wars in general are horrible and should always be a last resort. The reason is that people get killed in wars, and not only the bad people, also innocent people. Every loss of an innocent life is a tragedy in and of itself. I don’t want to touch on this incident or that incident. Every loss of every innocent life is a tragedy. But I like to say it’s not just a war, it’s the most just war conceivable, because when you say that every loss of human life is a tragedy, that includes the nearly, if not over, 40,000 Iranian lives [that] were a massacred by their own regime, by Iranian regime for going out and protesting and voicing their opinion publicly. That was their so-called crime.

If the Iranian regime can do that to its own people, and if you see how casually they’re firing missiles indiscriminately at civilian populations all over the place, all over Middle East, Israel, Europe, you understand that. If you pair that with their terrorist activities for the past four plus decades all over the world, and with their statements, “death to Israel”, “death the United States”, then you realize how dangerous this regime is and that at the minimum, it has to be deprived of its ability to cause malice to other countries and individuals.

So therefore, this war, at this point, was inevitable. Otherwise, it would have put this very dangerous, merciless regime at the point where it had the capability to threaten and have the immunity with which to just carry its own way and put the entire region and world under its thumb, and that cannot happen.

You called this a “just war.” The Catholic Church has a very clear doctrine about that, but Pope Leo has condemned this war and many bishops, and Catholic ordinaries in the Holy Land, have said this war is immoral. Do you have a reaction? What has your engagement with the Holy See been like since this war began, given your differing views?

I haven’t heard the Pope or the Holy See talk about immorality or unjustness of this war, but about the need to eradicate hatred, to work against hatred and to resolve conflicts in dialogue and by diplomatic means. I would agree to that.

I think that conflicts ideally should be resolved diplomatically and in dialogue, but that can work only if all sides come to the table in good faith. For the past four decades of failed dialogue attempts with the Iranian regime, those attempts failed because the Iranian regime did not come in good faith. It used those rounds of dialogue, including this last one right before we embarked on this operation, in order to stall and deceive the world, and to stall for time that it used in order to continue developing and hiding its very dangerous programs.

At a certain point, one has to ask oneself, what do I wait for? Do I wait until they acquire the means with which to eradicate me and have their way before I take action? Or do I take action in order to prevent them, at which point, it’s too late to do anything? Take North Korea, for example. Or do I take action to prevent them from acquiring those means? We were at a point where not taking action would have been much more dangerous not in the long run, but in the short term. I think that by degrading the Iranian regime’s capabilities – hopefully the Iranian people will remove it altogether and replace it – the entire region and world will be a much safer, more peaceful place.

Is there room for diplomacy at this point? Can there be a cessation of hostilities, as Pope Leo has asked?

When you are engaged in an operation, you set goals for that operation. Our goals are to remove for a long term, not for six months or a year, but to completely remove the existential threat on us emanating from this Iranian regime. I cannot see how that happens as long as that regime still holds, but certainly that would be the goal.

For decades, the world tried to negotiate with Iran in order to, amongst other things, bring us closer to that goal, and that hasn’t worked. Do I see a diplomatic solution now? I don’t know. Let’s see where things are heading. Right now, the Iranians chose as their successor to the supreme leader his son, who is just as, if not more, radicalized than his father. So, I honestly don’t see how this regime is changing its mindset or course in any way that could bring us closer to a resolution of this in diplomatic means. I’d be happy to be pleasantly surprised, but I just don’t see that right now.

Final question. Many religious leaders, including Pope Leo, continue to call for an end to this war and for peace. Can you advocate for the protection of religious sites without listening to the voices of the leaders who oversee them?

It’s very important to hear their voices, and I join those voices in that call for peace. Israel is a country committed to peace. We have peace with two of our neighbors that used to be two of the fiercest enemies. We expanded peace and harmonization in 2014 with the Abraham Accords to other countries in the region. I think, if anything, there is an opportunity if we remove the obstacle to peace. The Iranian regime is an obstacle to peace, not a pathway to peace.

If it is removed or debilitated, the potential for expanding peace, the peace circle in the region, would be greater; not lessen, but increase. So, I’m very hopeful that peace will expand actually in the region once the obstacles for peace are removed and the main obstacle is this Iranian regime.

Of course, it’s possible, and it’s important that religious leaders remind us all of what we should all be striving for and to set those values front and center, because we should be, indeed, striving for peace and for engagement and for dialogue and for mutual respect. I think these are important values and religious leaders have an important role in pointing to that ideal and helping us pave the way towards reaching that light at the end of the tunnel.

I have great respect and admiration for the role of religion in this. I think it’s possible, if one acts in a responsible way, to protect religious sites and most importantly, worshippers themselves. It’s our responsibility to protect people, not just the freedom of worship, but maybe even before that, the very lives of individuals. We’re committed to that in Israel, taking every action to ensure safety. First of all, the safety of everyone, including members of all religions, and we’re taking great efforts to do that.