Iran today rejected Israeli accusations of involvement in the sabotage of railway lines in France or that it plans to attack the Israeli delegation at the Paris Olympics, saying they were intended to divert attention from the "genocide" in Gaza.
"The accusations and hatred spread by the minister of the child-killing regime of Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran in connection with the Paris Olympics are a desperate attempt to divert world public opinion from the genocide in Gaza," X Naser Kanani, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said on social media.
Kanani said the accusations by the Israeli "regime" were "more ridiculous than credible" and contradicted the Olympic Charter based on peace and friendship.
High-speed train (TGV) lines in France were targeted by sabotage today, on the opening day of the Games, affecting hundreds of thousands of people.
Shortly after the incident, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X that the action against the French railway network was carried out under the influence of ‘Iran's Axis of Evil’, and added that Tehran was planning attacks against Israeli athletes and those from other countries taking part in the Olympics.
Katz was referring to the ‘axis of resistance’, an informal anti-Israeli alliance led by Iran and made up of Lebanese Hezbollah, Palestinian Hamas and the Huthis of Yemen, among other formations particularly in Iraq and Syria.
Kanani assured, however, that his country would take part in the sporting event as normal.
‘The sports delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran will take part in the Paris Olympics with dozens of athletes and national champions,’ said Kanani, who wished the French government “success” in organising the sporting event.
Iran and Israel are fierce enemies, refer to a mutual existential threat, compete for regional hegemony and maintain a covert war with cyber-attacks, assassinations and sabotage.
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