Response to terror attacks in Delhi and Tbilisi

Iran is    behind these attacks; it is the largest exporter of terrorism in the world.

President    Shimon Peres    today (Monday), 13 February 2012, strongly condemned the acts of terrorism    against Israeli embassy personnel India and Georgia. He said,    „We will continue to defend and protect our citizens anywhere in the    world. These acts of terrorism will not deter us.”

President Peres    spoke earlier today with Israeli Ambassador to India Alon Ushpiz and    Israeli Ambassador to Georgia Itzhak Gerberg and told them: „I want to    encourage the embassies’ staffs in both countries and thank the governments    and security forces in India    and Georgia    for their help and cooperation in this matter.”

Regarding Iran, the President said, „Iran is not only building a bomb and    threatening to destroy our people, the government of Iran today    is the headquarters of terrorism, of hatred and of war, and will not spare    any effort to attempt to kill and to destroy. The Iranian government    does not have a future because it does not promise a future. We shall meet    the Iranian dangers as it should be done – with the maximum effort to    make the region secure and peaceful.”

President Peres was    updated on the situation of the Israeli citizen, Tal Yehoshua Koren, who is    in hospital in India,    and on the cooperation with the local authorities at the scenes of the    attacks. „I want to wish her a speedy recovery and hope she will be    well soon,” the President added.

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Prime    Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today made the following remarks:

„In recent    months we have witnessed several attempts to attack Israeli citizens and    Jews in several countries, including Azerbaijan,    Thailand    and others. In each instance we succeeded in foiling the attacks in    cooperation with local authorities. Iran and its proxy Hizbullah    were behind all of these attempted attacks. 

Today we have    witnessed two additional attempted terrorist attacks on innocent civilians,    the first against an Israeli woman who was wounded in New     Delhi and the second against a local employee of the Israeli    Embassy in Georgia.    Iran    is behind these attacks; it is the largest exporter of terrorism in the    world. The Government of Israel and the security services will    continue to act together with local security forces against such acts of    terrorism.  We will continue to take strong and systematic, yet patient,    action against the international terrorism that originates in Iran.”

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Foreign    Minister Avigdor Liberman: „It just shows that Israel    and its citizens face terror inside and outside of Israel. We    deal with it every day. We know how to identify exactly who is responsible    for the attack and who carried it out. We will not allow this to affect our    agenda.”