Iran to U.N.: No role in Burgas attack

UNITED NATIONS, July 26 (UPI) -- The Iranian government flatly denied suggestions it played a role in a suicide bombing targeting Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, a diplomat said.

Israeli tourists were among the victims of a bomb attack in the resort city of Burgas allegedly carried out by a man carrying a fake Michigan driver's license. The Israeli government said it suspected Iran and Hezbollah were behind the attack.

Mohammed Khazaei, the Iranian envoy to the United Nations, told the U.N. Security Council it was curious that Israel pointed fingers "just a few minutes" after last week's attacks.

"While condemning any terrorist attack in whatever form and manifestation, with regard to the terrorist attack in Bulgaria, I should make it clear that we have never and will not engage in such a despicable attempt," he was quoted by Iran's state-funded broadcaster Press TV as saying.

Bulgarian officials suggested there wasn't enough evidence to any one organization. The government said it believed the suicide bomber didn't act alone, however.

Khazaei added, in an apparent reference to Israel, that Iran was of the position that an operation such as last week's could "only" be planned by "the same regime whose short history is full of state terrorism operations and assassinations aimed at implicating others for narrow political gains."

Israel has been suspected of having a role in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists in recent years.