Tehran agrees to consider letting Indians in to probe Israeli embassy bombing

Iran agreed to consider on Thursday allowing an Indian-led probe in Iran to investigate the country’s connection to the February 13 bombing of an Israeli diplomat’s car in New Delhi, though it maintained that the Israeli accusation of Iranian involvement was a fabrication of the “Zionist regime.”

“We have been accused of so many things so many times.  We totally refute allegations of this sort,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salah, who is visiting India.

Israel has linked the New Delhi attack to a simultaneous incident in which a magnet bomb was attached to an Israeli Embassy car in Tbilisi, Georgia. The Tbilisi bomb was diffused before detonation.

The attacks, together with another attempted attack in Bangkok days later, were connected to Iran and the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

The attack complicated India’s relations with Iran and Israel. India has come to rely on Iran to supply its soaring population with oil, but has also in recent years developed defense and tourism ties with Israel.

Indian authorities were initially careful to avoid implicating Iran. India issued warrants in March for the arrest of three Iranian nationals in connection with the attack, causing a rapid erosion in ties between the countries.

The New Delhi bombing resulted in the critical injury of an Israeli diplomat’s wife and three others.