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Iran envoy accuses Israel over Bulgaria bus bomb

Israeli soldiers carry the coffin of one of the five Israelis who were killed during an explosion on a tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, after their arrival at the Ben Gurion airport outside Tel Aviv, early 20 July 2012.

Iran's UN envoy yesterday accused Israel of staging a suicide bomb attack on an Israeli tourist bus in Bulgaria.

The envoy Mohammad Khazaee said Israel staged the attack, in which five Israelis and their Bulgarian driver were killed, as part of a campaign of "state terrorism operations and assassinations aimed at implicating others for narrow political gains." The comments in a UN Security Council debate on the Middle East outraged Israeli officials, who have accused Iran and their Lebanese militia ally Hezbollah of carrying out the July 18 attack near Burgas airport.

Khazaee said "the representative of the Zionist criminal regime leveled baseless allegations against my country" over the Bulgaria attack.

Iran would never take part in such a "despicable attempt on the lives of innocent people," he 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," Khazaee said.

The envoy said there were "many examples" of Israel killing "innocent Jewish people" and renewed accusations that Israel has been behind recent killings of Iranian nuclear scientists.

Haim Waxman, Israel's deputy UN ambassador, 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 reaffirmed his government's accusations against Iran. "Iran's fingerprints are all over last week's horrific attack in Bulgaria -- and in dozens of other terrorist plots in recent months that span five continents and at least 24 countries," he said.

Bulgaria FM 'Refutes' Al Qaeda Responsibility for Burgas Attack

The Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has refuted information from Israeli papers that the organization Qaedat al-Jihad has assumed responsibility for Wednesday's terrorist attack in Burgas.

This has been stated by Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Vesela Cherneva to Bulgaria's Focus Information Agency.

Earlier Saturday, Israeli papers the Israel Times and Yedioth Ahronoth stated that Qaedat al-Jihad, or Base of Jihad, had assumed responsibility via an e-mail to Lebanese paper Elnashra.

The organization, possibly an Al Qaeda unit, allegedly stated it organized the Burgas suicide bombing attack, which claimed the lives of 7, and vowed to pursue further acts of terror against Israel, the US and their allies.

In case the terrorist act has been organized by Al Qaeda, that would render less plausible claims by senior Israel statesmen, including President Shimon Peres and PM Benjamin Netanyahu that Hezbollah and Iran are responsible for the attack.