By Amir Kizroch and Yaakov Katz

January 19, 2010

Source:

Last week’s failed attempt on the lives of Israeli diplomats in Jordan was apparently carried out on instructions from Teheran, sources close to Jordan’s General Intelligence Department (GID) revealed on Monday.

Jordanian bombs squad members inspect the site where a bomb targeted a convoy of cars from the Israeli Embassy in Amman, Jordan, Thursday. (photo AP)

The sources said the GID was investigating the possibility that the explosives used in the attack had been smuggled into the kingdom by Iranian diplomats.

The attack itself was apparently carried out by local al-Qaida supporters who received money and explosives from Iran, the sources said.

On Monday, Al-Arabiya reported that an Amman taxi driver was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the bombing.

According to the sources, the GID believes that the attack came in response to the killing of Iranian scientist Prof. Massoud Ali Muhammadi in Teheran last week. Ali Muhammadi was killed by a remote-controlled bomb on a motorcycle.

On Monday, Iran’s Interior Minister Mostafa Muhammad Najjar over Ali-Muhammadi’s assassination.

Israel’s ambassador in Jordan, Yaakov Rosen (standing), shakes hands with Omar Nadif, Jordan’s deputy ambassador in Israel. (photo: Foreign Ministry)

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Israel of being behind the assassination, which he said had been carried out in “Zionist style.”

The sources in Amman pointed out that the attack on the Israeli diplomatic convoy had been carried out in a way similar to the assault on the slain Iranian professor.

“We can see Iran’s fingerprints on the roadside bombing,” the sources said. “The investigation is continuing in various directions.”

Israel has been on high alert in recent weeks ahead of the second anniversary of the assassination of Hizbullah terror mastermind Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus.

A number of attempts by Hizbullah to avenge Mughniyeh’s February 2008 killing have been thwarted, including a plot last year to bomb Israel’s embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the Israeli defense establishment is concerned that Hizbullah will make an effort to strike an Israeli target ahead of the anniversary.

Security officials are also considering the possibility that the attack may have been carried out by al-Qaida or one of its affiliates, or a Palestinian terrorist group.

Last year three Hamas activists were sentenced in Jordan to five years in prison for conducting surveillance of the Israeli Embassy in Amman.