Indian and Israeli cultures share "many similarities" and people of both the countries believe in professionalism and rarely "back down from a fight", US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has said.
Highlighting her Indian connection, 45-year-old Haley said while there were many "good things" about the people of the two countries, they were also "aggressive" and "stubborn".
"I am the daughter of Indian parents, who reminded my brothers, my sister and me everyday how blessed we were to live in this country. The truth is, I have seen so many similarities between the Israeli culture and the Indian culture," Haley said in her address to Americans Israel Public Affairs Committee Policy Conference yesterday.
"We're very close knit. We love our families. We have a strong work ethic. We believe in professionalism and philanthropy, and giving back. So that's all the good things. We're aggressive. We're stubborn. And we don't back down from a fight," Haley said in response to a question.
She also rued that the Iranian deal had only empowered the Iranians.
"It's concerning. And the reason it's concerning is because when the Iran deal took place, all it did was empower Iran, and it empowered Russia. And it emboldened Iran to feel like they could get away with more," she said.
"It is - you can put sanctions on a country. To take sanctions away, it's very hard to go back and put sanctions back on. So what we have said is, we're going to watch them like a hawk. We're going to make sure that every single thing they do is watched, processed and dealt with," she said.
Noting that there are a lot of threats to peace and security, Haley said the US will not take its number one democratic friend in the Middle East and beat up on them.
"I think what you're seeing is they're all backing up a little bit. The Israel-bashing is not as loud. They didn't know exactly what I meant outside of giving the speech, so we showed them. So when they decided to try and put a Palestinian in one of the highest positions that had ever been given at the UN, we said no and we had him booted out," she said.
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