India has named Jitendra Pal Singh — currently the point-person for Iran and Pakistan as well as the Special Envoy to Afghanistan — as its next Ambassador to Israel. Photo: X/@MoDAfghanistan2
India has named Jitendra Pal Singh — currently the point-person for Iran and Pakistan as well as the Special Envoy to Afghanistan — as its next Ambassador to Israel.
Mr. Singh has held a number of important designations at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) over the past few years. He assisted External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar as the Joint Secretary in the Minister’s office, and has also headed the important Iran-Pakistan-Afghanistan (IPA) desk at the MEA.
Mr. Singh will take over as Indian Ambassador in Tel Aviv “shortly”, the MEA said in a statement. This change of guard comes at a crucial time, during the Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza. India’s previous envoy to Israel, Sanjeev Singla, has been appointed as Ambassador to Paris.
Critical time
On Saturday, the Israeli forces and Hamas are due to conduct their second exchange of hostages and prisoners. This is part of a three-phase, three-month ceasefire that began on January 19, which has already seen the exchange of three Israeli women by Hamas and 90 Palestinian women and children detained by Israel.
India has welcomed the ceasefire, and Palestinian diplomats have expressed the hope that India will be involved in the future reconstruction process in Gaza. Mr. Singh’s tenure in Tel Aviv is expected to be important in terms of bilateral defence and trade ties, but also because a growing number of Indian workers are being sent to work on projects in Israel. If the ceasefire holds, New Delhi also hopes to revive multilateral engagements like the I2U2 with Israel-U.S.-U.A.E. and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, both of which have been virtually shelved since the October 7, 2023 terror attacks in Israel by Hamas and the conflict that has followed, taking nearly 50,000 lives.
Steered Iran, Pakistan ties
Mr. Singh’s assignments during this time have included balancing India’s relationship with Iran along with its ties with Israel during the standoff and exchange of missiles in 2024. He was also responsible for ensuring high-level engagements between India and Iran during a year in which Iran lost its President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian, and inaugurated the new President Masoud Pezeshkian after an election. In addition, Mr. Singh — who himself served as Deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan between 2014 and 2019 — has managed tense ties with Pakistan for a decade, including a brief détente as Mr. Jaishankar travelled to Islamabad for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Heads of Government meeting, the first such visit in nearly a decade.
In Islamabad, Mr. Singh was present when Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Lahore in 2015, and then handled the fallout of the Pathankot and Uri terror attacks, as well as the Kulbhushan Jadhav case. He was frequently summoned to the Pakistan Foreign Office as India-Pakistan ties deteriorated over the next few years. During his tenure as Joint Secretary (IPA), India and Pakistan clashed over the Pulwama attacks, and cancelled trade ties and recalled High Commissioners after the Kashmir reorganisation in 2019. Mr. Singh also oversaw talks to build the Kartarpur corridor for pilgrims.
Key role in Aghanistan
Mr. Singh, who has steered India’s tenuous engagement with the Taliban government for the past few years, attended the Doha talks that led to a U.S.-Taliban agreement. Following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, he is credited with negotiating the re-opening of the Indian “technical mission” in Kabul after it was shut down, when India had evacuated all personnel from there. Since then, he has made a number of visits to Kabul and Doha to meet the Taliban leadership and attended meetings of the Moscow Process, Oslo Forum, and other multilateral meetings as India’s Special Envoy on Afghanistan.
Apart from his five-year stint in Pakistan, Mr. Singh has served in Afghanistan for four years from 2008 to 2012, and dealt with the deadly aftermath of two suicide attacks by the Taliban on the Indian Embassy in 2008 and 2009. Several Indian construction and security personnel were also targeted during the period as India built the Zaranj-Delaram Highway, the Afghan Parliament Building, and the Chabahar port.
As a consummate diplomat, after the process of the Modi government began normalising ties with the Taliban post-2021, Mr. Singh has travelled to Kabul to meet with Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani network held responsible for the attacks on the Indian Embassy and consulates across Afghanistan. More recently, he has been negotiating with Taliban officials seeking humanitarian assistance, and development projects from India to be restarted.
Mr. Singh also served as India’s consul-general in Istanbul for a few months in 2019, and was earlier posted in the Indian embassy in Moscow.
Published – January 24, 2025 07:59 pm IST