Modi's Call With Jordan King India's Way Of 'Acknowledging Arab Opinion' On Israel-Hamas Conflict: Expert

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a conversation with Jordan's King Abdullah II, following Israel's relentless bombing campaign of Gaza in retaliation to the Hamas attack, and called for efforts to an "early resolution" of the crisis.

Modi wrote on Twitter about his talks with the Jordanian King -- the third West Asian leader the former has spoken to since Israel bombed Gaza -- on their concerns about terrorism, violence and loss of civilian lives.

"Concerted efforts needed for early resolution of the security and humanitarian situation," the Indian leader said.

"I think it's a way of keeping India relevant but also to show that India is acknowledging Arab opinion on the fighting," Guy Burton, a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre, told International Business Times about Modi's call with Jordan's king.

India, due to its own experiences with terrorism, is an ardent votary of counter-terrorism at the global level. This led to India's prompt condemnation of the multi-pronged Hamas attack on Oct. 7 and immediate show of support for Israel.

Modi also had a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a couple of days after the attack and expressed India's "solidarity with Israel." However, India is still maintaining its long-held stand on the Palestine issue of advocating for a two-state solution.

"In keeping with India's long-standing position regarding Palestine, New Delhi reminded Israel about its obligation to observe international humanitarian law," Vinay Kaura, a non-resident scholar in the Middle East Institute, Washington, DC, told IBT.

"This position reminds us of the fine line that India has walked since the establishment of full diplomatic ties with Israel more than three decades ago while still supporting the Palestinian cause of independent statehood," he added.

The increasingly strong bilateral connections in recent years between India and Israel may have appeared to some as though India "tilted" toward Israel, Kaura said.

"But [India] has always tried to balance its growing ties with Israel by supporting the moderate section of Palestinian opinion. For instance, Prime Minister Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel. However, he was also the first Indian Prime Minister to make an official visit to Palestine," he said.

India's ties with Israel flourished in recent years, with their cooperation including a range of areas like security and defense, trade, agriculture, space, technology and more. Moreover, some of India's allies in the Middle East, like the UAE, also no longer had the Palestine issue as a central tenet of their regional policy and began improving ties with Israel themselves.

"India has historically been supportive of the Palestinian position and voted in line with it at the UN. But since the 1980s and 90s India has been developing closer diplomatic and economic relations with Israel, a process which didn't start under Modi but certainly accelerated with him," Burton said. "Indeed, you could arguably say that India and Israel have become closer than India is with the Palestinians these days. The two share similar sentiments when it comes to treating Muslims and political Islam with suspicion."

India has also strengthened ties with the Arab world in recent years, which also makes New Delhi's policy on the Israel-Palestine conflict an issue to be handled delicately.

"By joining the I2U2 (India, Israel, UAE and US) and the IMEC (India-Middle-East-Europe Corridor) initiatives, India is now a key player in the emerging sub-regional economic groupings," Kaura said. "So India has much to lose both economically and strategically if the conflict shows region-wide escalation with involvement of more state and non-state actors. It is in India's interest to contain the radical elements, which are desperate to derail the normalization process between Israel and some moderate Arab countries. Therefore, unlike the popular perception of India's tilt towards Israel, New Delhi will play a more nuanced role in crisis management or conflict de-escalation without showing overt favor to any one party."

Hence, Modi highlighting his talks with Jordan's King could be a way of "countering the idea that India is too close to Israel, especially given widespread Arab anger at Israel's military actions in Gaza," Burton said.

"The audience may not necessarily be Jordan or the Palestinians though, but rather the Gulf states, where India's interests and diaspora are much larger," he added.

India has sent medical and disaster relief aid for Palestinians after the Rafah crossing opened Saturday.

Modi also spoke last week with Palestinian Authority H.E. Mahmoud Abbas and said India will continue to send humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people. However, India is not likely to be directly involved in bringing the immediate fighting to a halt.

"India isn't really in a position to do anything directly. The peace talks are dominated by the U.S. as the principal third party mediator. While the Palestinians would welcome opening that role up to include more members of the international community, Israel sees no advantage in this and with its US partner, would veto that," Burton said. "As for indirect influence, India isn't really in a place to do that either. It's not currently a member of the UN Security Council, where the deliberations about the fighting end up. And India isn't a member of the Quartet, which has provided slightly expanded international support for the peace process."

Even though India has the "political capital" to talk to Israeli leadership owing to the closeness between the two countries in recent years, "it's hard to see them listening if a closer ally, the US, is unable or unwilling to provide that counsel," Burton added.