Netanyahu Blames Iran, Hezbollah For Attacks On Embassies – OpEd
By Jim Kouri
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday evening blamed the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah for two attacks against Israeli embassies in India and Georgia, according to a Law Enforcement Examiner source in the Israeli National Police, who requested anonymity.
“In the last few months, we have been witnessing to several attempts to harm Israelis and Jews in a number of countries: in Azerbaijan, in Thailand, and elsewhere… In all of the cases, the entities behind the attacks were Iran and its collaborator, Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said, according to the Israeli police source who retired from a large U.S. police force before moving to Israel.
Four people, including an Israeli woman, were injured Monday when an Israeli diplomat’s car was struck by a bomb near the Israeli embassy in New Delhi, India. Also on Monday, a staff member of the Israeli embassy in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi discovered a bomb attached to his car when he was heading for home from the embassy. Fortunately, Georgian police bomb technicians successfully defused the explosives.
“This just means that the State of Israel and its citizens face a daily threat of terror, both physical and diplomatic. We know exactly who’s responsible for the attack and who planned it, and we’re not going to take it lying down,” Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was quoted by the Ha’aretz daily as saying after Monday’s attacks.
Israel “will fight terror, both within its borders, and beyond them,” the foreign minister vowed.
The Israeli embassies and consulates worldwide raised alert after the incidents, according to the Law Enforcement Examiner source who requires anonymity.
Monday’s attacks came one day after the fourth anniversary of a car bombing in the Syrian capital of Damascus that killed Hezbollah’s military chief Imad Mughniyah.
Hezbollah blamed the killing of Mughniyah on Israel, but Israel has categorically denied any involvement in the assassination.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt.General Benny Gantz convened a meeting of the army’s senior staff on Monday in the wake of the attacks and may be planning a counterterrorism operation against the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
The manner in which the bomber blew himself and his cache of bombs up is suspicious.Why would they have Iranian passports and money on them clearly identifying they were of Iranian origin? They never had a plan of escape-is this all a set up? I am not sure. Iran is risking a war and must be pretty stupid to do this.Thailand recognized the state of Palestine, Indian and georgia have relations with Iran-why spoil that??