Iran accuses U.S. of supporting dual attacks

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian leaders on Friday accused the United States and Saudi Arabia of supporting the Islamic State-claimed dual attacks that killed 17 people in Tehran this week, as thousands of Iranians attended a funeral ceremony for the victims.

The country’s supreme leader said the attacks will add to the hatred that Iranians harbor toward the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

In a condolence message ahead of a funeral for the victims, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the attack: “will not damage the Iranian nation’s determination and the obvious result is nothing except an increase in hate for the governments of the United States and their stooges in the region like Saudi (Arabia),” state media reported.

On Thursday, Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said investigators were working to determine whether Saudi Arabia had a role in Wednesday’s attacks but said it was too soon to say if that was the case.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. The IS media arm Aamaq released a video Thursday evening showing what it claimed was a message from the Tehran attackers. The fourminute video shows three masked men sitting on a floor holding automatic rifles. One of the men speaks in the sorani Kurdish dialect common among Kurds in northeastern Iraq and northwestern Iran.

The speaker claims to represent the “first battalion” of IS formed inside of Iran. He speaks out at length against Shiites and promises further attacks. He concludes by threatening the royal family of Saudi Arabia and promises, “after Iran, it will be your turn.”

During the funeral, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani called the U.S. the “international” version of the Islamic State group and said Washington had exchanged democracy for money, a reference to a recent huge arms deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. State TV broadcast the ceremony live.