New Delhi, June 14 : Accusing Iran of "cheating and being "very close" to arming a nuclear weapon, Israeli Ambassador to India Reuven Azar on Saturday justified the military operation launched against Tehran, saying that the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to take the pre-emptive action in order to defend the country's very existence.

"According to our intelligence, the Iranians were very close to arming a nuclear weapon. They were exploiting the time that President Trump gave them in order to negotiate during these 60 days. They formed a clandestine group that was working to assemble a nuclear weapon and that was the imminent threat we had. Therefore, we took action to prevent annihilation because this is what the Iranians want - to destroy our State. We are not going to allow it," Azar told IANS in an exclusive interview.

The Israeli diplomat slammed Iran for breaching trust and going ahead with the assembling of a nuclear weapon.

"We have no doubt. Nuclear technology is already 80 years old and it's not something that is complicated to do. The question was whether the Iranians are going to again breach their statement that they are not going to assemble a nuclear weapon. We knew that they were cheating...

"The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) has said several times, including in a report they gave last week in a resolution that was passed in the Board of Directors, that Iran has actually breached the safeguards agreement in the framework of the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty). For us, it is an existential issue because when a country as radical and fanatic as the Ayatollah's regime in Iran swears to destroy us, we take it seriously. And when they try to acquire the weapons to do so, we take it even more seriously," Azar said.

The IAEA has been calling Tehran to "cease and reverse nuclear escalations," stop the continuing "uranium enrichment activities," engage in serious dialogue and provide convincing assurances that its nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful.

"The IAEA is doing its work. We have been asking and urging the IAEA to act and check the information we and other Western powers supply them. They have been slow in doing that. But they finally did that, and they are the ones who determined that Iran is cheating again. Therefore, this is a very dangerous and precarious situation. Israel had to take pre-emptive action in order to defend its own existence," believes Azar.

On Friday, Netanyahu announced the launch of 'Operation Rising Lion' - a targetted military operation "to roll back the Iranian threat of nuclear weapons to Israel's very survival". The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) on Saturday also announced the elimination of nine Iranian nuclear scientists during the opening phase of its military operation.

"We are already in a pretty much full-fledged war with Iran. They have been, for 30 years, attacking us, sponsoring terrorism, harbouring terrorists, helping, financing, training, supplying sophisticated weapons, and supplying the means to produce these weapons to proxies like Hezbollah, like the militias in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and more," Azar told IANS.

"They have been constructing this huge ballistic missile program to destroy us. And they have been, most gravely, acquiring a nuclear weapon. Therefore, there's no doubt that there is a war between us and Iran. The question is for how long this is going to continue and what is going to take until the Iranians understand that they are not immune; they will pay a price, and they are paying a price for their aggression," he mentioned further.

Following the attacks, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Israel must wait for a harsh punishment for its "crime" against Iran.

"We always take these threats very seriously. As you know, Israel is in a state of emergency. We have instructed and advised our citizens to stay near shelters. We have seen several barrages of drones and ballistic missiles fired at Israel. Unfortunately, last night, two Israeli civilians died as a result of a hit by ballistic missile into an urban area. The Iranians are committing yet another crime, a war crime, by firing these ballistic missiles at urban areas," the Israeli Ambassador stated.

He emphasised that several countries all over the world, including in the Gulf, have backed the Israeli strikes since Friday.

"We have seen a lot of countries that are concerned. We have common interests with many Arab countries in our region. With many of them, we have done peace accords. I think that they are worried because they might be attacked by Iran as well. I think that they are pretty satisfied that Israel is neutralising this threat that actually already has proven itself very dangerous to them as well," Azar remarked.

/IANS