{"id":8945,"date":"2021-04-01T16:31:20","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T13:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/?p=8945"},"modified":"2021-04-06T18:19:47","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T15:19:47","slug":"irans-hand-in-the-bomb-blast-targeting-the-israeli-embassy-in-new-delhi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/monitoring-and-translation\/reports\/irans-hand-in-the-bomb-blast-targeting-the-israeli-embassy-in-new-delhi\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Hand in the Bomb Blast Targeting the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After a month of investigation, India\u2019s central counterterrorism agencies recently concluded<\/a> that the Quds Force of Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was behind the bomb blast which targeted the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi on  January 29, 2021. A low-grade improvised explosive device (IED) caused the low-intensity blast outside the Israeli Embassy on Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Road. The blast coincided with the completion of 29 years of diplomatic ties between India and Israel. As per the latest news reports from New Delhi, the investigating agencies also revealed that the IED  was planted by a local Shiite cell.  The blast occurred against the backdrop of India\u2019s attempts<\/a> to improve economic engagement with Iran.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs handed over<\/a> the Israeli Embassy bomb blast probe to the National Investigation Agency, and later a team from  Israel\u2019s Intelligence Agency Mossad joined<\/a> the investigation with both agencies exchanging information.  As per sources acquainted  with the investigation, the initial joint probe indicated Iran\u2019s involvement in light of preliminary evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initial investigations indicated that the low-grade  IED was thrown near the Israeli Embassy from a moving vehicle, in addition,  the forensic teams found<\/a> that the IED used  ammonium nitrate-fuel oil and was stuffed with ball bearings as shrapnel. India\u2019s Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory also examined<\/a> the remnants to conduct a detailed analysis of the blast scene. One of the most important pieces of evidence pointing to Iran\u2019s hand was a  letter<\/a> left at the scene. It  said that the blast  was revenge for the killing of  Qassem Soleimani, Abu Mahdi  al Muhandis  and Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.  As per news reports<\/a>,  New Delhi\u2019s police said that the materials used to produce the IEDs \u201cwere locally sourced\u201d and \u201cthe envelope that was found at the blast site has revealed the Iranian connection to the blast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who planned the blast tried to mislead investigators by deliberately leaving behind false-flag cyber markers indicating the involvement of  ISIS. The counterterrorism agencies are certain that the IED blast was  part of the asymmetric warfare of Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard against Israel. A senior Indian government official said<\/a>, \u201cdeliberate efforts have been made to firewall the real perpetrators behind the terror incident with false flags and deniability built into the attack that obviously was carried out at the behest of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several newspaper reports  indicated that the New Delhi Police Special Cell had identified<\/a> two Iranian nationals for their role in  the blast. They  are residents of Zakir Nagar in South Delhi. Upon identification of the two Iranian nationals, the Iranian Embassy in New Delhi responded by denying all allegations and said<\/a> that such speculation is nothing but \u201csinister intentions of the enemies of Iran- India relations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\u2019s Minister of External affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar spoke with  Israel\u2019s Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi in the aftermath of the blast, assuring him  that India\u2019s central investigating agencies were undertaking all the necessary investigative steps to trace those responsible.   Furthermore, India\u2019s Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla   spoke<\/a> with his Israeli counterpart Alon Ushpitz and India\u2019s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval spoke with  Israel\u2019s National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat.    Israel\u2019s Ambassador to India, Ron Malka has repeatedly called the blast  a terrorist attack and  has also said<\/a> that he was not surprised by the  blast as alert levels were raised weeks prior to the blast in light of intelligence information.  While responding to a question regarding Iran\u2019s link to the blast,  Malka said<\/a>, \u201cThose non-state actors that are striving for destabilization in the region and the world don\u2019t like what is happening between Israel and India, that are striving for stability and peace. It might be a threat for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2012 a similar blast near the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi injured an Israeli diplomat\u2019s wife and some others  who were accompanying her.    The 2012 attack was concluded<\/a> to have been plotted  by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and reports mentioned it was in response to the killing of Iranian scientists.  The geopolitical situation is different now as India in recent years has strengthened  its ties with Israel across several spheres  including counterterrorism and intelligence sharing, whereas, India continues to have troubled<\/a> relations with Iran. Hence, Iran remains wary about India\u2019s growing ties with Israel and the recent blast has resulted in further tensions between Iran and India against the backdrop of  ongoing attempts to improve<\/a> their bilateral interactions.  Moreover, India is concerned that its improvement in relations with Israel and other Middle Eastern countries may result in regional rivalries extending to its territories, like what we see in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a month of investigation, India\u2019s central counterterrorism agencies recently concluded that the Quds Force of Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was behind the bomb blast which targeted the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi on January 29, 2021. A low-grade improvised explosive device (IED) caused the low-intensity blast outside the Israeli Embassy on Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Road. The blast coincided with the completion of 29 years of diplomatic ties between India and Israel. As per the latest news reports from New Delhi, the investigating agencies also revealed that the IED was planted by a local Shiite cell. The blast occurred against the backdrop of India\u2019s attempts to improve economic engagement with Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":8946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[524,5777,12,5778,5776],"class_list":["post-8945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports","tag-bomb","tag-bomb-blast","tag-iran","tag-irans-hand","tag-israeli-embassy-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8945"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8959,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8945\/revisions\/8959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}