JOIN USHours after the ‘explosion’ in an Israeli embassy car here on Monday, New Delhi promised Tel Aviv to probe into the incident and bring perpetrators of the attack to justice.
Linking the explosion to an abortive bid to blow up the car of a Georgian driver of the Israel Embassy in Tbilisi on the same day, Tel Aviv blamed Iran for both the incidents. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna spoke to his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Liberman soon after the explosion.
“I have just spoken to the Israeli foreign Minister and I have reassured the Israeli Foreign Minister that the law of the land will take its course. The investigation has already started and we will continue with it and then keep him posted as and when we get progress report of the investigation,” Krishna told journalists after speaking to Liberman.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also blamed Iran for the explosion in New Delhi and the thwarted attack in Tbilisi.
Netanyahu said Israel will not cease its fight against international terror, of which he identified Iran as the “world’s greatest exporter”, haaretz.com reported. However, Tehran denied involvement in the strike, which has amplified tensions between two countries at loggerheads over Iran’s contested nuclear program. Hezbollah, the powerful Shi'ite Muslim movement in neighbouring Lebanon, declined comment.
Standing behind Monday’s attacks was “Iran, the world’s greatest exporter of terror”, Netanyahu said. “In the last few months we have witnessed several attempts to target Israeli citizens and Jews in a series of countries, such as Azerbaijan and Thailand. In all of these cases we were able to thwart these attacks in cooperation with local forces,” he said.
“The Israeli government and its security services will continue, with local security, to act against the international terror which Iran produces,” the prime minister said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel will not tolerate an attack on its officials abroad. The “attacks against Israeli embassies abroad... just means that the state of Israel and its citizens face a daily threat of terror, both physical and diplomatic”, he said.
“India very strongly condemns such incidents and it is going to be fully investigated and the culprits will be brought to justice at the earliest,” said Krishna, who had visited Israel last month.