India is very concerned over escalating hostilities between Iran and Israel and New Delhi has told the countries to “calm down,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday, amid spiralling tension in the Middle East.

Iran carried out its first direct attack on Israel on Saturday in response to a suspected Israeli strike on its consulate in Damascus on April 1 that killed seven Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards including a senior general.

“We have been telling them not to allow this (the situation) to escalate and that this is a very crucial region for the global economy,” he told reporters here.

Mr Jaishankar emphasised that the stability of the Middle East region was essential because about one crore Indian citizens live there and said, “A large part of our shipping passes through this region and also, oil comes from there