Iran: Trump's Reaction To Deadly Attacks Is
'Repugnant'
Foreign minister Javad Zarif rejects
statement by US president that Iran fell
victim 'to the evil they promote'.
By Al Jazeera
June
08, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
-
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
has called US President Donald Trump's
reaction to deadly
attacks in Tehran "repugnant", as
intelligence officials said that the five
attackers were Iranians who had fought for
ISIL in Syria and
Iraq.
At least 16 people were killed
on Wednesday in attacks claimed by the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL,
also known as ISIS) group, as suicide
bombers and gunmen targeted the Iranian
parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah
Khomeini - leader of the 1979 revolution -
in the capital, Tehran.
"Repugnant [White House] statement &
Senate sanctions as Iranians counter terror
backed by US clients. Iranian people reject
such US claims of friendship," Zarif tweeted
on Thursday.
He was responding to a statement
released by Trump's press secretary's office,
which took the opportunity of an attack to
make a point that "states that sponsor
terrorism risk falling victim to the evil
they promote".
The White House statement, which mentioned
how Iranian people were "going through such
challenging times", came as the US Senate
advanced legislation that would impose new
sanctions on the Islamic Republic, partly for
what the bill described as Iran's "support for
acts of international terrorism".
What kind of "terrorism" these statements
refer to remains vague. Trump
has long accused
Iran of backing "terrorism" and has
threatened to tear up a 2015 nuclear deal
between the Iranian government and major western
powers.
Trump's comments also brought criticism from
Iranians on social media, who recalled their
government's offers of support and candlelit
vigils held in Iran after the attacks of
September 11, 2001 in New York.
"Iranians lit candles for you on 9/11. You
kick them while they're down. Classy," tweeted
Ali Ghezelbash, an Iranian business analyst.
Attackers fought for ISIL
More than 40 people were also wounded in
Wednesday's attacks.
A statement by the intelligence ministry
issued on Thursday said that the men who carried
out the twin attacks had left Iran to fight for
ISIL in the Iraqi city of Mosul, as well as
Raqqa, in
Syria - the armed group's de facto capital -
before returning last summer.
It identified the men only by their first
names, saying they did not want to release their
last names owing to security and privacy
concerns for their families.
The assault marks the first attacks claimed
by ISIL in Iran.
Iranian security officials counter that it is
their regional rival
Saudi Arabia, a
close US ally, that is responsible for funding
and spreading the ideology that most closely
resembles ISIL's.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard weighed
Saudi Arabia of being behind Wednesday's attacks.
"The
fact that Islamic State has claimed
responsibility proves that they were involved in
the brutal attack," the Revolutionary Guard said
in a statement, referring to Saudi Arabia.
The
statement also said that the "spilled blood of
the innocent will not remain unavenged".
Source
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The
views expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of Information Clearing House.
See
also -
Watch; Moment gunmen
burst into Tehran building:
CCTV footage shows the moment a deadly terror
attack began in Tehran on Wednesday morning.
