Iran has accused Israel of being behind the assassinations of four nuclear scientists, as well as the sabotage of military installations and nuclear sites over the past several years. Israeli officials have declined to confirm involvement in the attacks, but they’ve also declined to condemn them.
BY SHEERA FRENKEL | MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
JERUSALEM — Israeli officials on Monday blamed Iran for nearly simultaneous attempts to bomb Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia in what some analysts suggested may be Iranian retaliation for a series of attacks on its nuclear program that have been widely blamed on Israel.
In New Delhi, the explosion wounded four people, including the wife of the Israeli Embassy’s defense attache. In Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, the device was discovered on a vehicle parked at the Israeli Embassy and disarmed harmlessly.
“Today we witnessed two attempts of terrorism against innocent civilians,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “Iran is behind these attacks, and it is the largest terror exporter in the world.”
Netanyahu said Israeli diplomats also had been the targets of recent attacks in Azerbaijan and Thailand. He blamed Iran and “its protege, Hezbollah,” the Shiite Muslim militia that’s Lebanon’s dominant political group.
Iran denied responsibility, saying the Israeli accusations were part of a “psychological war” against it, according to the country’s official IRNA news agency. White House press secretary Jay Carney said the United States was “still evaluating what happened” and hadn’t determined who was responsible.
Analysts said it wouldn’t be surprising if Iran were behind the attempts. “When it comes to Iranian acts of terror against the Israelis, this is not new,” Dennis Ross, the former Obama administration envoy to the Middle East, told McClatchy Newspapers in Washington. “We knew this when I was negotiating.”
Tensions between Israel and Iran have been growing for the past year amid reports that Israel is considering launching a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel and the United States have accused Iran of using its nuclear program to develop a nuclear weapon, a claim Iran denies. In a report issued in November, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, said Iran had been working at one time to develop a nuclear warhead but that IAEA inspectors had been unable to determine whether that program still existed.
Iran has accused Israel of being behind the assassinations of four nuclear scientists, as well as the sabotage of military installations and nuclear sites over the past several years. Israeli officials have declined to confirm involvement in the attacks, but they’ve also declined to condemn them.