FT Reporter Apologizes for Tweeting 'Israel Bribed Bulgaria'

The bombing at the Burgas airport killed 5 Israeli tourists, their Bulgarian bus driver and the perpetrator of the attack. Photo by BGNES

Borzou Daragahi, a Financial Times reporter who claimed that Israel bribed Bulgaria into blaming Hezbollah for last year's terror attack in Burgas, has apologized.

"I don't doubt Hezbollah/Iran could be behind Bulgaria bombing, but also think Israel could pay Sofia to say anything," Daraghi, who is the Middle East and North Africa correspondent for the Financial Times of London, tweeted on Tuesday.

"Sincere apologies and regret for ill-conceived tweet yesterday about Israel and Bulgaria," he wrote Wednesday on Twitter.

The Times of Israel informs that Daragahi's apology came after a harsh statement concerning his comment by HonestReporting, an Israel-based media watchdog group.

"It is disgraceful for someone who calls himself a journalist to deal in second-rate conspiracy mongering," HonestReporting CEO Joe Hyams said in a statement published on the organization's website.

Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov stated Tuesday that Bulgarian investigators had "a well-founded assumption" that the perpetrators of the deadly attack belonged to the military formation of Hezbollah.

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