Iran denies involvement in Luxor attack - Monte Carlo radio

Iran's ambassador in Damascus Hasan Akhtari said on Wednesday that Tehran was not involved in last month's attack in the Egyptian city of Luxor, when 68 people were shot dead.

In remarks broadcast by Monte Carlo radio, Akhtari denied a report published in Wednesday's edition of `The Jerusalem Post' which alleged Iranian involvement.

"According to a statement by Egyptian officials it was originally the United States that had a hand in the Luxor issue," he said.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has had nothing to do with any of these or similar incidents; neither this one nor others.

This report is a lie in the full sense of the word," Akhtari said.

He said the Israeli report was published deliberately to harm a possible rapprochement between Iran and the Arab world.

"The fact that this report came out of Israel and through the Israeli media clearly shows that this report is targeting the question of relations and improving ties between Iran and its Arab neighbours and Iran and friendly states," Akhtari said .

"This type of report is trying to undermine Iran's ties or its efforts to improve them," he added.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.