OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/NEW DELHI/BEIRUT: Israel accused arch-enemies Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of being behind the twin bomb attacks that targeted embassy staff in India and Georgia Monday, wounding four people.

Tehran denied any involvement in both incidents, which amplified tensions between two countries already at loggerheads over Iran’s nuclear program. When contacted by The Daily Star in Beirut Monday, Hezbollah made no comment.

Police in the Indian capital New Delhi said a bomb wrecked a car carrying an embassy official as she was going to pick up her children from school. The woman needed surgery to remove shrapnel but her life was not in danger, officials said. Her driver and two passers-by suffered lesser injuries.

Israeli officials said an attempt to bomb an embassy car in the Georgian capital Tbilisi had failed. The device was defused.

Israel had put its foreign missions on high alert ahead of the fourth anniversary this past Sunday of the assassination in Syria of the military mastermind of Hezbollah, Imad Mughniyeh – an attack widely assumed to be the work of Israeli agents.

Israel is believed to be also locked in a wider covert war with Iran, whose nuclear program has been beset by apparent sabotage, including the killings of several Iranian nuclear scientists, most recently in January.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed both Iran and Hezbollah, accusing them of responsibility for a string of recent attempted attacks in countries as far apart as Thailand and Azerbaijan.

“Iran and its proxy Hezbollah are behind each of these attacks,” said Netanyahu, who dismisses Iran denials that it is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. “We will continue to take strong and systematic, yet patient, action against the international terrorism that originates in Iran.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast rejected Netanyahu’s accusation, calling it “psychological warfare against Iran.”

“We condemn any terrorist action and the world knows that Iran is the biggest victim of terrorism,” Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

“It seems that these suspicious incidents are designed by the Zionist regime and carried out with the aim of harming Iran’s reputation,” he added.

Iranian MP Javad Jahangirzadeh was quoted by the semiofficial Mehr news agency as saying the Israeli charges were meant to provoke the world against Iran and to undermine upcoming nuclear talks between Tehran and the world powers.

Another lawmaker, Avaz Heidarpour, was quoted by Mehr as saying Netanyahu’s allegations were an attempt by Israel to justify future operations against Iran.

“It’s very likely that the Zionist regime is paving the way to carry out an assassination abroad or hit inside Iran. So, they are preparing for that.”

Israeli officials have long made threats to retaliate against Lebanon for any Hezbollah attack on their interests abroad, arguing that as the militia’s allies sit in government in Beirut, its actions reflect national policy.

The New Delhi blast took place some 500 meters from the official residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

B.K. Gupta, the New Delhi police commissioner, said a witness had seen a motorcyclist stick a device to the back of the car, which had diplomatic plates. “The eyewitness ... says it [was] some kind of magnetic device. As soon as the motorcycle moved away a good distance from the car, the car blew up and it caught fire,” said Gupta.

The Iranian scientist killed in Tehran last month died in a similar such attack by a motorcycle bomber who attached a device to his car. No one has claimed responsibility for that, although Iran was quick to accuse agents of Israel and its U.S. ally.

Israel named the injured woman as Talya Yehoshua Koren, who worked at the embassy and was married to the defense attache.

“She dragged herself from the car and is now at the American hospital, where two Israeli doctors are treating her,” an Israeli defense ministry spokesman said.

Thailand said last month its police had arrested a Lebanese man linked to Hezbollah and he later led them to a warehouse stocked with bomb-making materials. Also last month, authorities in Azerbaijan arrested two people suspected of plotting to attack Israel’s ambassador and a local rabbi.

In a Jan. 24 speech, Israel’s military chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, accused Hezbollah of trying to carry out proxy attacks while avoiding direct confrontation. Israel and Hezbollah fought an inconclusive and costly war across the Lebanese border in 2006.

“During this period of time, when our enemies in the north avoid carrying out attacks, fearing a harsh response, we are witnesses to the ongoing attempts by Hezbollah and other hostile entities to execute vicious terror attacks at locations far away from the state of Israel,” Gantz said.

“I suggest that no one test our resolve.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a statement, condemned the attacks on Israeli targets: “The scourge of terrorism is an affront to the entire international community,” she said. “We stand ready to assist with any investigation.”