January 26, 2006	Thursday	Zilhaj 25, 1426

TEHRAN, Jan 25: Iran on Wednesday directly accused Britain of equipping and directing those behind a twin bomb attack in the oil city of Ahvaz that killed eight people and wounded dozens more. Britain immediately dismissed the allegations — which come amid a wider deterioration of relations between Tehran and London over Iran’s nuclear programme — as ‘completely without foundation’.

“The trace of Iraq’s occupiers in the Ahvaz crimes are clear, and they must take responsibility,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Iranian media.

Eight people died and 46 others were wounded in Tuesday’s attacks in the restive southwestern Iranian city situated close to the border with British-controlled southern Iraq. A visit to Ahvaz that day by Mr Ahmadinejad had been cancelled at the last moment because of bad weather.

“We have information showing that British soldiers in Iraq equip these elements and draw up their missions,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.

“It is not necessary to point out that the members of this group are based in London,” he added, apparently referring to the Britain-based Popular Democratic Front of Ahvazi Arabs.

In London, the Foreign Office denied the charges.

“We reject these allegations from Mottaki,” a spokesman said. “Any linkage between HMG (Her Majesty’s Government) and these terrorist attacks is completely without foundation.”

Ahvaz has been hit by a wave of insecurity over the past year. These include ethnic riots in April and a string of car bombings before the June presidential election in which Mr Ahmadinejad scored a shock victory.

In October another double bombing in Ahvaz killed six people and wounded more than 100.

Several pipelines have also been hit by blasts in recent months, with sabotage reportedly suspected in at least one of those incidents.

After the October blasts, Mr Mottaki also said the Iranian government had proof of British meddling.—AFP