Israeli diplomats were bomb targets, Thai police confirm

Published on Friday 17 February 2012 00:00

Three Iranians detained after accidentally setting off explosives in Bangkok were planning to attack Israeli diplomats, Thailand’s top policeman said yesterday.

Israel has strongly accused Iran of being behind the botched plot, a bombing in India and an attempted bombing in Georgia this week, which Iran has denied.

Yesterday’s comments were the first confirmation by local officials that the group was plotting attacks in Thailand.

National police chief Gen. Prewpan Dhamapong said that Thai authorities now “know for certain that [the target] was Israeli diplomats. This issue was about individuals and the targets were specific,” he said. “This was something personal.”

Israel has accused Iran of waging a covert campaign of state terror and has threatened military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran has blamed the Jewish state for the recent killings of Iranian atomic scientists and has denied responsibility for all three bomb plots.

Monday’s explosion in New Delhi tore through an Israeli diplomatic vehicle, wounding the driver and a diplomat’s wife, and an attempt was foiled the same day in Georgia.

Speaking in an interview during a trip to Japan, Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak said: “It’s clearer to more and more of the world that Iran, which is a veteran sponsor of terror, is trying to raise the bar even more, trying to harm diplomats around the world.”

Israel’s UN ambassador said the security council should condemn the attacks quickly.

“Israel expects it to issue a clear condemnation today, without any further delay or equivocation,” Ambassador Ron Prosor said in a letter distributed by the Israeli mission.

Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said security had been stepped up for its diplomatic staff abroad. “Security is of the essence at times like this,” Mr Palmor said.

The plot in Bangkok was discovered when explosives in the men’s rented house blew up by mistake Tuesday. One suspect, Mohammad Kharzei, was paraded before journalists yesterday, his apparently handcuffed hands covered by a dark sheet.

Prewpan said Kharzei had “partially confessed” and acknowledged knowing another suspect, Saeid Moradi, whose leg was blown off by an explosion on a busy Bankgok street.

Kharzei, grim-faced, did not speak as he stood before reporters, but Prewpan described him as “stressed out” and another official said he was having trouble eating.

The third Iranian, Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, was detained in Malaysia and was being investigated for terrorism-related activities linked to the Bangkok blasts. Federal police there could not say whether Sedaghatzadeh would be extradited to Thailand.

Thailand’s acknowledgment that terror attacks were being planned on its soil stood in contrast to its denials last month, when police arrested a Lebanese-Swedish man with alleged links to Hezbollah. At the time, authorities insisted Thailand was only being used as a staging ground for attacks, but was not the target.