Finger pointing over bomb blasts

Israel is absolutely sure that the botched terrorist act in Thailand was directed at the Israeli Ambassador to that country. Tehran has strongly denied the allegation, and moreover, an official of Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Ramin Mehmanparast believes that the incident is the hand-work of Tel-Aviv.  

After the Tuesday’s explosion in Bangkok, the  Thai police detained  one of the bombers, according to the Thai authorities. He is said to be an Iranian, prompting Israel to accuse Iran of master-minding the incident. The bombs were not aimed directly at Israeli citizens. It has been established that one of the devices exploded during its assembly in a flat, while two other bombs were detonated by the militants as they  tried to escape from the scene.  However, the Israeli Ambassador to Thailand, Itzhak Shoham continues to claim that the bombs were meant for him.

Strengthening Israeli accusation are the two incidents this week near the Israeli embassies in India and Georgia. The first explosion was on a car belonging to a Military Attaché, who fortunately was not in the car. In the second incident, a grenade was attached to a vehicle driven by a Georgian driver, who works for the Israeli embassy. The grenade was rendered harmless before it could explode. As was to be expected, Tel-Aviv accuses Tehran of responsibility for the two incidents, while Iran has in turn blamed Israel for the attempted assassinations.

Meanwhile, unbiased experts have not taken sides in the war of words. The two countries are known to use such method to demonstrate their strength and ability, says Tatyana Nosenko, an employee of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for Oriental studies.  

“Israel can equally be accused of using assassination methods to solve problems. The killing of Iran’s nuclear physicists is widely believed to be the work of Israeli secret agents, and for its part, Iran is attempting to retaliate in kind. History is repeating itself in a different situation. Whenever relations between Tel-Aviv and its Arab neighbours deteriorate, there is always a series of terrorist attacks. Hence it would serve both sides well to keep their simmering conflict on a low burning furnace”, Tatyana Nosenko advised.

In recent times, the Iran-Israel conflict has escalated over Tehran’s nuclear programme. Israel and its allies, but especially the  U.S. and the EU demand that Iran halts its nuclear development, threatening a military strike on that country if it fails to comply. The issue is not that a nuclear Iran poses a mortal threat to the world and international peace.  It is because Iran’s influence in that region is like a  cat among  the pigeons in   relation to Western plans, believes Veniamin Popov, an expert at  the Moscow Institute of  International Relations. 

“The situation in the Middle East has escalated, and the confrontation between the Shiite and Sunni Muslims -  the two major branches in Islam is the central issue. The Shiites are in the minority-only 15 per cent. The American invasion of Iraq tilted the balance of power in favour of the Shiites, and a serious Shiite arch appeared in the region, consisting of Iran, Iraq and later Syria, which is also regarded as a  Shiite state. The Hezbollah of Lebanon are also a part of that arch”, Veniamin Popov said.

In the meantime, Iran and Israel have denied involvement in the terrorist attacks. Indian, Georgian  and Thai officials have pledged to find out who is behind the attacks in their countries.

Originally published in The Voice of Russia

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