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No 'Ifs' Or 'Buts' In Dealing With Terror: Israel

(RTTNews) - Israel has said there cannot be any "ifs" or "buts" while dealing with the menace of terrorism as the Jewish nation strongly pitched for "concerted and unified" international approach to deal with "Islamist" terrorism.

"Terrorism is terrorism. Killing people at a train station, Chabad house or at Taj or Oberoi hotel is pure simple unadulterated terrorism and there are no ifs and there are no buts. There is no reason for it and it must not have happened," Israeli Ambassador to India Mark Sofer told Indian media on Thursday.

Stating that Israel stood 100 per cent behind India, which has been a victim of cross-border terrorism, the Israeli envoy said his country welcomed New Delhi's recent initiative of holding dialogue with Islamabad. "We certainly believe that we will stand behind you all the way down the line" while ruling out any reciprocal expectation from India.

Making a strong pitch for "concerted, unified, international" approach to deal with Islamists' terrorism, Sofer said terrorist groups did not discriminate between Muslim or non-Muslim.

"So, it (terrorism) is not only a problem of Israel or India or Arab or non-Arabic world, it is a major issue which needs to be dealt with concerted, unified, international help and it is not a struggle which we have luxury of losing," he said.

However, Sofer said that the situation in South Asia and West Asia were different due to various factors, including some states being nuclear power.