Israeli PM Netanyahu: Iran behind terrorist bomb attack in Bulgaria’s Bourgas

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on July 18 2012 that “all signs” regarding the bomb explosion on a bus at the airport at Bulgaria’s Black Sea city of Bourgas led to Iran and added that Israel would have a strong response against Iranian terror.

The bomb explosion at Bourgas Airport left four people dead and 27 in hospital, some in critical condition. The bus had met a flight from Israel and was due to take a group of Israeli tourists to Bulgaria’s popular seaside resort of Sunny Beach.

A few days earlier, Netanyahu also blamed Iran as being ultimately behind an alleged attempt by a man arrested in Cyprus on July 7.

The arrest of the man, of Lebanese descent and holding a Swedish passport, took place some days after he arrived in Cyprus on a flight from London. His arrest followed information provided to Cypriot authorities by Israeli intelligence services.

The 24-year-old allegedly considered an attack against the Israeli embassy in Cyprus but reportedly abandoned the plan because of strict security at the building. He then considered an attack on an El Al aircraft but then settled on an attack on a bus, he is said to have told his interrogators.

“There are no borders to Iranian terrorism,” Netanyahu said after the arrest in Cyprus.

 “After Iran sent its people to assassinate – on US soil – the Saudi Arabian ambassador and to perpetrate terrorist attacks in Azerbaijan, Bangkok, Tbilisi, New Delhi and Africa, its intention to perpetrate attacks in Cyprus has now been exposed. The international community needs to fight the greatest exporter of terrorism in the world,” Netanyahu said.
The bomb explosion in Bourgas took place on the 18th anniversary of a terrorist attack on Israeli citizens in Buenos Aires.
(Photo: netanyahu.org.il)

Comments

comments

Clive Leviev-Sawyer

Clive Leviev-Sawyer is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of The Sofia Globe. He is the author of the book Bulgaria: Politics and Protests in the 21st Century (Riva Publishers, 2015), and co-author of the book Bulgarian Jews: Living History (The Organization of the Jews in Bulgaria 'Shalom', 2018). He is also the author of Power: A Political Novel, available via amazon.com, and, on the lighter side, Whiskers And Other Short Tales of Cats (2021), also available via Amazon. He has translated books and numerous texts from Bulgarian into English.