Iran calls Trump’s response to terror hits ‘repugnant’
President says that sponsors of attacks at risk of ‘falling victim’
Iran’s foreign minister Thursday denounced as “repugnant” President Trump’s mixed-message response to terror attacks in Tehran that killed 17 people.
“Repugnant WH statement & Senate sanctions as Iranians counter terror backed by US clients,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted. “Iranian people reject such US claims of friendship.”
Iranian officials Thursday raised the death toll to 17 in the attacks a day earlier at Iran’s parliament and the tomb of the country’s former supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Several assailants also died in the assault that wounded more than 40 people.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, the first reported acts of terrorism carried out by the radical Sunni group in Shiite-dominated Iran.
Condolences for the victims and condemnations of the attacks continued to pour in Thursday, but the White House statement drew the ire of Iranian officials.
“We grieve and pray for the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in Iran, and for the Iranian people, who are going through such challenging times,” Trump said. “We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote.”
Days earlier, Trump drew scorn for blasting the mayor of London after knife-wielding attackers killed eight people at London Bridge and a popular nearby market.
“Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his ‘no reason to be alarmed’ statement,” Trump tweeted two days after Saturday’s attack. Mainstream media “is working hard to sell it!”
Trump’s Twitter sensitivity aside, Firas Abi-Ali, Middle East analyst at IHS Markit, says it is true that “Iran’s sponsorship of Sunni and Shia extremism has backfired, as it inevitably does.” And he noted that Saudi Arabia deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud, emboldened by Trump’s recent visit to Riyadh, said last month that his Sunni-led government would bring “the battle” for regional influence to overwhelmingly Shia Iran.
That, Abi-Ali told USA TODAY, enhances Saudi Arabia’s Sunni credibility in the centuries-long struggle between Sunni and Shia in the Middle East.
“Islamic State is competing with Saudi Arabia for Sunni hearts and minds,” he said. “Demonstrating that it can attack Iran gives it an advantage.”
In Iran, Brig. Gen. Hossein Ashtari said one of the terrorists involved in Wednesday’s attack has been arrested and is under interrogation. Several other arrests also have been made.
Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi accused Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorist groups around the globe but said it was too soon to link the Saudis to the Tehran attacks.
Zarif appeared to blame Saudi Arabia. “Terror-sponsoring despots threaten to bring the fight to our homeland,” Zarif tweeted.
“Islamic State is competing with Saudi Arabia for Sunni hearts and minds.”
Firas Abi-Ali,
Middle East analyst