Iran’s envoy to the United Nations has accused Israel of carrying out the suicide bombing of an Israeli tourist bus in Bulgaria.
AFP reported that Mohammad Khazai said on Wednesday that Israel had staged the attack, which claimed the lives of five Israelis and a Bulgarian driver, as part of a campaign of “state terrorism operations and assassinations aimed at implicating others for narrow political gains.”
The comments, which were made in a Security Council debate, drew fire from Israeli officials, who had earlier accused Iran and their Lebanese ally Hezbollah of being behind the July 18 attack at Burgas Airport.
Khazai accused Israel of making baseless accusations against Iran, adding that Iran would never take part in such a “despicable attempt on the lives of innocent people.”
Khazai added: “Such a terrorist operation could only be planned and carried out by the same regime whose short history is full of state terrorism operations and assassinations aimed at implicating others for narrow political gains.”
Khazai also renewed Iran’s earlier allegations that Israel is behind the recent assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists.
Haim Waxman, Israel’s Deputy UN representative, said: “These comments are appalling but not surprising from the same government that says the 9/11 attack was a conspiracy theory and denies the Holocaust.”
Waxman also repeated Israeli government accusations that Iran was behind last week’s attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria.
