( dpa ) - Iran has expressed its concern over India's helping Israel launch a spy satellite and has asked New Delhi to refrain from allowing other countries to launch spying operations from its territory, officials said Tuesday.
"We hope that wise and independent countries like India do not provide space and technologies to countries which are undertaking spying operations on Iran," Iran's envoy to India, Sayed Mehdi Nabizadeh told reporters in New Delhi.
He was responding to a query about Iran's reaction to the January 21st launch of an Israeli spy satellite by India's space agency, the Indian Space Research Organization.
Ambassador Nabizadeh said that though it had not lodged an official complaint, its officials had informally conveyed this position to the Indian foreign affairs establishment.
He said that Indian officials had replied that the launch was a "commercial decision" by the ISRO, which has recently entered the global space launch market.
Security analysts have said that the Israeli satellite Tecsar also referred to as Polaris would help it in stepping up surveillance on Iran and has altered the strategic balance with that country.
Growing business and defence ties have led to transformation in relations between India and Israel over the past decade. The increasingly close links between the two countries have not been received well by Tehran and other countries in the Middle East.
Defence data shows that Israel has become India's second biggest arms supplier after Russia, with 5 billion dollars worth of military hardware being procured by India between 2002 to 2007.