‘Sinister Intentions of Enemies’: Iran Slams Report Claiming IRGC Behind Israel Embassy Blast

Earlier, media reported that a list of suspects in a low-intensity blast near the Israeli Embassy in Delhi on 29 January was issued by India’s National Investigative Agency, alleging that an Iranian elite force might have been behind the plot.

Iran's Embassy in New Delhi has categorically rejected a report claiming the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force was behind the blast in the Indian capital on 29 January 2021. While strongly repudiating “unsubstantiated allegations or irresponsible comments” in this regard, the Iranian Embassy considers these reports as steps towards realising the sinister intentions of the enemies of Iran-India relations.

The embassy suspect a third party's role aimed to disrupt the bilateral relations at a juncture when ties are being boosted with visits by high-ranking officials and leaders, including security and defence delegations, in recent months.

“This question deems serious attention whether the said suspicious blast has any benefit for bilateral relations or who would indeed gain from this action?! Is the presumption that this act must have been conducted by third parties who are angry and dissatisfied with the progress in the relations between the governments of Iran and India illogical?” the statement reads.

The low-intensity blast took place a few days ahead of Iranian Defence Minister Brig. Gen. Amir Hatami's visit to New Delhi, which was the first trip by any Iranian defence minister since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. 

The Iranian Embassy urged the media and commentators “not to fall into the traps and thereby unknowingly enforce the scenarios conspired by third parties whose intention and interest is nothing but to deteriorate the growing Iran–India relations”.

Earlier in the day, several Indian media outlets reported that the country's federal counter-terrorism agencies had compiled a list of suspects in the Israeli Embassy blast case as investigations have established the alleged role of Iran's Quds Force in the incident.

On the day of the incident, Delhi Police recovered a letter addressed to Israel’s Ambassador to India Ron Malka from the site of the explosion. The letter vowed revenge for slain Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and leader of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis. Both were killed in a US drone attack in January 2020 in Baghdad.

The case is now being investigated by Indian agencies, with involvement of experts from the Israeli spy agency Mossad.