AP

An unidentified man from the Israeli Embassy, third right, looks at the site after an explosion tore through a car belonging to the Israel Embassy, left, in New Delhi, India, Monday, Feb. 13, 2012. The driver and a diplomat's wife were injured, according to Indian officials. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)

NEW DELHI: Israel has blamed Iran for bomb attacks on the cars of its diplomats in India and the former Soviet republic of Georgia, heightening concerns that the Jewish state is moving closer to striking its arch-enemy.

Iran has denied responsibility for Monday’s attacks, which appeared to mirror the recent killings of Iranian nuclear scientists that Tehran blamed on Israel.

The blast in New Delhi set a car ablaze and injured four people, including an Israeli Embassy driver and a diplomat’s wife; the device in Georgia was discovered and safely defused.

“Iran is behind these attacks, and it is the largest terror exporter in the world,” Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu told lawmakers from his Likud party.

The violence added further tension to one of the globe’s most contentious standoffs. Iran is accused of developing a nuclear weapons programme that Israel says threatens the existence of the Jewish state. Tehran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.

Comments by Israeli officials in recent weeks have raised fears that Israel might be preparing to strike Iranian nuclear facilities. While Israel says it hopes international sanctions can curb Iran’s programme, leaders pointedly note that “all options are on the table” and have warned that as Iran moves closer to weapons capability, time is running out for action.

Fearing that an Israeli attack could set off a conflict across the region and send oil prices skyrocketing, US and other Western countries have been pressing Israel to give sanctions more time.

Israeli military analyst Reuven Pedatzur said Monday’s action was unlikely to have any bearing on whether Israel attacked Iran, calling it an isolated incident with rather low impact.

The attackers in India and Georgia appeared to have used “sticky bombs” attached to cars by magnets, similar to weapons that were used against Iran’s nuclear officials.

Netanyahu said Israel had thwarted attacks in recent months in Azerbaijan and Thailand and unspecified other countries.

“In all those cases, the elements behind these attacks were Iran and its protégé, Hezbollah,” he said, referring to Iran’s Lebanese proxy. He vowed to “act with a strong hand against international terror”.

Israeli media reported that the government blamed Iran based on prior intelligence and that security officials feared this could be the start of a wave of attacks against Israeli targets overseas.

Iranian officials rejected Netanyahu’s claim.

“This accusation is within the Zionist regime’s psychological war against Iran,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying.

The New Delhi attack took place a few hundred metres from the prime minister’s residence as the diplomat’s wife headed to the American Embassy School to pick up her children, said Delhi police commissioner BK Gupta.

When the minivan approached a crossing, she noticed a motorcyclist ride up and stick something on it that appeared to be a magnetic device.

The car drove a short distance, there was a loud sound and then an explosion, and the car caught fire. – Sapa-AP