Tangled web of claims and blame for Iran attack
TEHERAN: Teheran has identified an array of parties as perpetrating or having a hand in the Sept 22 attack that killed 24 people in the city of Ahvaz.
Ahvaz is the capital of Khuzestan, a province bordering Iraq in southwestern Iran where ethnic Arabs form a majority.
There have been two claims of responsibility for the gun assault against a military parade, including one by the Islamic State (IS) group.
Here is what we know about the accusations and claims.
Soon after the attack, the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps accused the Al-Ahwaziya movement of culpability.
Al-Ahwaziya is an Arab separatist movement from Khuzestan province, but it comprises various groups.
On Saturday, London-based opposition channel Iran International TV broadcast a claim of responsibility by a group called the Ahvaz National Resistance.
Two other regional separatist movements – the Ahwazi Democratic Popular Front and the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz – made statements denying any involvement.
– The blame game
President Hassan Rouhani yesterday accused an unnamed Gulf country of giving financial, armed and political support to the instigators of the attack.
The same day, Iran’s foreign ministry summoned the UAE’s charge d’affaires over what it called “offensive remarks” by a political adviser.
Iran has strained relations with the UAE, while diplomatic ties with Bahrain and regional rival Saudi Arabia have been broken since 2016.
On Saturday, Iran summoned diplomats from Denmark, the Netherlands and Britain, accusing these countries of hosting “terrorist group members” responsible for the attack.
In a statement yesterday, the Revolutionary Guard pointed the finger of blame at a “Western-Hebrew-Arabic satanic triangle”.
IS claimed its first attack in Iran on June 7, 2017, when gunmen and suicide bombers hit the parliament in Teheran and the shrine of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, killing 17 people and wounding dozens.
On Wednesday, IS threatened to carry out new attacks in the Islamic republic.
Iran is “flimsier than a spider’s web, and with God’s help, what comes will be worse and more bitter”, the group said.