Iranians hit out at Britain in wake of massacre
IRAN HAS summoned diplomats from Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands for allegedly harbouring members of a terrorist group that launched an attack on a military parade in the country’s south-west.
The country’s Foreign Ministry also criticised Britain over a Saudi-linked, Farsi-language satellite channel immediately airing an interview with an Ahvazi separatist claiming responsibility.
Saturday’s attack in Ahvaz killed at least 25 people and wounded over 60 in the deadliest terror atrocity to strike the country in nearly a decade.
Women and children scattered along with Revolutionary Guard soldiers as heavy gunfire rang out at the parade, with the chaos captured live on state television.
The region’s Arab separatists, once only known for nighttime attacks on unguarded oil pipelines, claimed responsibility for the brazen assault and Iranian officials appeared to believe the claim.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has said an unnamed US-allied country in the Gulf was behind the attack.
“It is absolutely clear to us who committed this crime... and whom they are linked to,” he said.
Mr Rouhani could have been referring to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain – close US military allies that view Iran as a regional menace over its support for militant groups across the Middle East.
Iran has blamed its arch-rival, the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for funding Arab separatists’ activity.
State media in Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge the attack, though a Saudi-linked, Farsi-language satellite channel based in the United Kingdom immediately carried an interview with an Ahvazi activist claiming Saturday’s attack.
Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran’s ambassador to the UK, called the channel’s broadcast a “heinous act” in a post on Twitter and said his country would file a complaint with British authorities.
Yesterday, a Foreign Ministry statement quoting spokesman Bahram Qasemi similarly criticised Britain and said Danish and Dutch diplomats were told Iran “already warned” their governments about harbouring Arab separatists.
Meanwhile Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also blamed regional countries and their “US masters” for funding and arming the separatists, issuing a stark warning as regional tensions remain high.
The US has condemned the violence but suggested Iran should reflect on how it sponsors terrorism in the region.
The attack came as rows of Revolutionary Guardsmen marched down Ahvaz’s Quds, or Jerusalem, Boulevard. It was one of many around the country marking the start of Iran’s long 1980s war with Iraq.
Journalists and onlookers turned to look toward the first shots, then the rows of marchers broke as soldiers and civilians sought cover under sustained gunfire.
Iranian soldiers used their bodies to shield civilians in the melee, with one Guardsman in full dress uniform and sash carrying away a bloodied boy.
In the aftermath, paramedics tended to the wounded as soldiers, some bloodied, helped their comrades to ambulances.
Eight of the dead served in the Revolutionary Guard, an elite paramilitary unit that answers only to Iran’s supreme leader.
State TV hours later reported that all four gunmen had been killed, three at the scene and one dying later in hospital.