The battle over Iran's nuclear weapons programme reached India on Monday as an Israeli diplomat's car was hit by a terror strike barely 200 metres from the official residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The first open attack on an Israeli target in India coincided with an aborted strike against Israeli diplomats in Tbilisi, Georgia, pointing to a marked escalation of hostilities between the Shiite theocracy in Iran, which is defiant about pursuing its nuclear programme, and Israel, the US as well as the Sunni Arab world who are equally determined to stop it.