ROUHANI FLIES INTO UN STORM AFTER TERROR ATTACK CLAIMS
Iranian president points finger of blame at the West as he sets off for General Assembly in New York
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani yesterday blamed the United States for the attack on a military parade that killed at least 29 people on Saturday, including 12 members of the Revolutionary Guard, and wounded 60 more.
An Iranian ethnic Arab opposition movement called the Ahvaz National Resistance, which seeks a separate state in oil-rich Khuzestan province, claimed responsibility for the attack, as did ISIS militants. Neither provided evidence. All four attackers were killed.
Speaking before leaving Tehran to attend the annual UN General Assembly in New York, Mr Rouhani said: “America is acting like a bully towards the rest of the world and thinks it can act based on brute force. But our people will resist and the government is ready to confront America. We will overcome this situation [sanctions] and America will regret choosing the wrong path.”
Tensions have flared between Iran and the US since President Donald Trump came to office vowing to quit the landmark nuclear deal – which he did this year.
Mr Rouhani struck the agreement in 2015 after years of talks with the administration of president Barack Obama, ushering in a cautious detente with Washington that ended when Mr Trump took office in January last year.
The Iranian president also accused Arabian Gulf states of providing financial and military support for anti-government ethnic Arab groups in Iran.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency blamed Saudi Arabia and Israel for aiding the attack. It said the shooting was carried out by an anti-government group that had received “unlimited support from a Saudi-Israel stream”.
Iran’s foreign ministry yesterday also summoned the UAE’s charge d’affaires over comments made about the military parade attack. State media said the action was taken over comments by an unnamed UAE official, but gave no details.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Anwar Gargash responded to Iran’s allegations yesterday, taking to Twitter to declare that there was no truth to them.
“The UAE’s historic stance against terrorism and violence is clear and Tehran’s accusations are baseless,” he wrote.
Gunmen fired at an observation stand where Iranian officials had gathered to watch an annual event marking the start of the Islamic republic’s 1980-1988 war with Iraq, causing soldiers to crawl for cover as gunfire crackled. Women and children fled for their lives.
It was one of the worst attacks against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the military branch most identified with Shiite clerical rule in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The IRGC answers not to Mr Rouhani but to the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, whose authority vastly outweighs the president and all other Iranian politicians and officials.
The US administration has targeted Iran with several measures since Mr Trump took office in January last year.
It has placed sanctions on Iranian people with links to the regime and has withdrawn from the nuclear deal agreed to with world powers.
The government is reimposing two rounds of sanctions on the Iranian economy, as well as threatening to penalise other countries for doing business with Tehran. The second round of sanctions will be imposed in November.
“America wants to cause chaos and unrest in our country so that it can return to this country, but these are unreal fantasies and they will never achieve their goals,” Mr Rouhani said.
The US and Gulf allies have railed against Tehran for its funding of proxy groups across the Middle East. It backs the Houthi rebels in Yemen, where they have overrun towns and cities, and it supports the Shiite militia Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has moved into Syria in support of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia about Mr Rouhani’s allegations.
The Saudi Arabian and UAE stance is that Iran poses a security threat to the Middle East and tries to dominate the region.