After Killings of Iran Nuclear Scientists, Israeli Diplomats Targeted - World Wires - MiamiHerald.com
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.”