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Iran protests

questioning

in Paris

NICOSIA: Iran has protested to France over the questioning of two Iranian embassy staff in connection with a bomb blast that injured 17 people in Paris, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

IRNA said the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran summoned French Charge d'Affairs Jean Francis-Jirault on Saturday night, strongly protested the questioning and "demanded an explanation, terming the issue as contrary to international norms".

The bomb had exploded near the Arc de Triomphe in the heart of Paris on Thursday, injuring 17 people including 11 tourists.

Police suspect Algerian Islamic fundamentalists battling the military-backed Algerian government of the bombing, the second at a tourist spot in the French capital in less than a month.

Iran's embassy in Paris had denied any involvement after French television reported that a car with Iranian diplomatic plates had been seen in the area just before the bomb went off.

IRNA said the French charge d'affaires "promsied to convey to his government the Iranian protest".

"He said the reply of the Iranian embassy staffers to the questioning has helped enlighten public opinion and dispelled all doubts that were raised by the media especially the alleged connection of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the recent blast in Paris," IRNA said.

The latest blasts recalled a wave of bombings that hit Paris department stores in 1986. Those attacks were blamed by French officials on the Iranian-backed Hizbollah party in Lebanon.-Reuter