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Over 4,000 Indian nationals have been brought back from Iran and Israel so far under Operation Sindhu, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.
The Indian government launched Operation Sindhu to evacuate all the Indian nationals from Iran and Israel amidst the escalating tensions between both countries which had gripped the region for the past couple of weeks before a ceasefire was agreed on Tuesday.
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Addressing his weekly media briefing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, while sharing an update on Operation Sindhu, said India has evacuated 3,426 Indian nationals from Iran and 818 Indian nationals from Israel till date under Operation Sindhu.
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“We launched Operation Sindhu on June 18. We have around 10,000 people from the Indian community in Iran and around 40,000 people in Israel who are Indian nationals,” he said.
He further said from Iran, India has so far evacuated 3,426 Indian nationals, 11 OCI cardholders, 9 Nepalese nationals, some Sri Lankan nationals as well and one Iranian national who happens to be the spouse of an Indian national.
The MEA spokesperson said 14 special flights were from Iran, Armenia and Turkmenistan and one final flight is en route from Armenia.
“In all, we mounted 14 flights to bring back Indian nationals from Iran. These flights, they flew from Mashhad, as well as from Yerevan in Armenia, and Ashgabat, Turkmenistan,” Jaiswal added.
“One more flight from Armenia will land later this evening. With that, we would have completed evacuation of all the people who wish to return from Iran and they would be back home,” he said.
The MEA spokesperson said in Israel, 818 Indian nationals were evacuated in four flights.
He said due to Israel’s closed airspace, Indians were taken to Jordan and Egypt, from where special flights were operated to bring them back home.
The MEA expressed gratitude to the governments of Egypt, Jordan, and Israel for their support.
“As far as Israel is concerned, we have so far evacuated 818 Indian nationals in four flights. As you are aware, the airspace in Israel was closed, so we had to take our people to bordering countries, that is Jordan and Egypt, and from both these countries they were put on special flights and they came back home. We are thankful to the governments of Egypt, Jordan for this support,” he said.
“Our embassies in Israel, in Jordan, in Egypt, collaborated very closely with the ministry headquarters here in mounting this operation. Once again, we’d like to thank the governments of Israel, Jordan, and Egypt for their support in Operation Sindhu,” he added.
Jaiswal also thanked the governments of Iran for opening their airspace for evacuation.
“We made a request to open the airspace for us to evacuate our nationals. We are grateful to the government of Iran for this special gesture. We are also thankful to the government of Turkmenistan and Armenia for helping us evacuate our people,” he said.
The MEA spokesperson said India is currently assessing the situation on the ground before taking any decision on continuation of Operation Sindhu.
“As far as Operation Sindhu is concerned, we are assessing the situation on the ground, and based on that, we will decide whether to continue with it or not. We will keep you updated in this regard. As you know, there is a ceasefire, and we have welcomed it,” he added.
Earlier in the day, in a post on X, Jaiswal said, “272 Indian and three Nepalese nationals were evacuated from Iran on a special flight that arrived in New Delhi from Mashhad at 00:01 hrs on 26th June. 3426 Indian nationals have been brought home from Iran as part of Operation Sindhu.”
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