France investigates possible Iran link after bomb attack foiled outside Bank of America

Private security members work next to a police van outside Bank of America’s Paris offices on Monday.

Photo: Reuters French authorities are investigating a suspected link to Iran after thwarting a bomb attack outside a Bank of America building in Paris at the weekend, the interior minister said on Monday.

The authorities suspect a link to Iran due to similarities to other recent attempted attacks in Europe which a pro-Iran group claimed responsibility for, French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said.

On Saturday morning, Paris police officers spotted two suspects carrying a shopping bag near the Bank of America in the 8th arrondissement of the French capital.

Five suspects have been arrested, including two on Monday, and the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into alleged terror-related offences.

Authorities are making a “direct link” with Iran because the “modus operandi is in every respect similar to actions that have been carried out in the Netherlands and in Belgium”, Nunez said on French radio RTL on Monday morning.

In those cases there were claims by a pro-Iranian group that “linked them to the conflict” in the Middle East, he said.

The group, known on Telegram under the name Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, which translates as the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, also claimed responsibility for an attack last week in London, where four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity were set on fire. “Typically, intelligence services of this country [Iran] operate in this way: They use proxies, a series of subcontractors, often common criminals, to carry out highly targeted actions aimed at US interests, the interests of the Jewish community, or Iranian opposition figures,” Nunez said.

Nunez said French authorities have stepped up security around key personalities and sites since the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran on February 28, including the personal protection of some figures from the Iranian opposition.

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