About the Author

Rajendra Madhukar Abhyankar is Director, Centre for West Asian Studies at the Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi. Ambassador Abhyankar retired from the Indian Diplomatic Service after more than 36 years of multi-faceted diplomatic experience of people, places and issues. He has been Ambassador to Syria, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union and High Commissioner to Cyprus and Deputy High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. He was responsible for fashioning India's policy on Palestine-Israel issue; and on developing India's relations with Israel and formulated and supervised India's policy in the field of counter-terror-ism. He led a number of bilateral groups with countries in the region.