India, March 13 -- India's stance on the US-Israel attack on Iran, and the latter's widening of the conflict to Arab countries and oil trade routes, need not be governed by "emotional" reasons, a top Indian ex-diplomat has said.

"The issue is not whether India should be 'for' or 'against' Israel, the United States, Iran, or the Gulf states in some emotional or ideological sense," wrote Nirupama Menon Rao, former foreign secretary, on X.

"The issue is whether any of these relationships, as they are currently conducted, advance India's long-term interests without narrowing India's strategic autonomy," she argued.

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Rao, who served as India's envoy to the US, China and Sri Lanka during her care...