Iran says Pakistan backs terror group that killed 27
ISFAHAN/MUNICH: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards accused “Pakistan’s security forces” of supporting the perpetrators of a suicide bombing that killed 27 troops on Wednesday, in remarks state TV aired on Saturday hours before their funeral was held.
“Pakistan’s government, who has housed these anti-revolutionaries and threats to Islam, knows where they are and they are supported by Pakistan’s security forces,” said Revolutionary Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari, referring to jihadist group Jaish al-Adl.
“If (the Pakistan government) does not punish them, we will retaliate against this anti-revolutionary force, and whatever Pakistan sees will be the consequence of its support for them,” he warned. The general made the remarks in Isfahan on Friday evening during a farewell ceremony held for those killed.
Jaish al-Adl was formed in 2012 as a successor to the Sunni extremist group Jundallah, which waged a deadly insurgency for a decade before it was severely weakened by the capture and execution of its leader Abdolmalek Rigi by Tehran in 2010.
The Wednesday bombing targeted a busload of Revolutionary Guards in the volatile southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, which straddles the border with Pakistan.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has linked the perpetrators of the attack to “the spying agencies of some regional and trans-regional countries”.
EUROPEANS FIRE BACK AT CRITICISM FROM US
Germany’s foreign minister on Friday slammed US President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade measures as creating a “lose-lose” situation and defended Europe’s attempts to keep a nuclear deal with Iran alive after the unilateral American withdrawal.
Heiko Maas fired back after harsh criticism from US vicepresident Mike Pence of some of Washington’s closest European allies.
Maas told a conference of world leaders and top diplomats and defence officials that Germany, Britain, France and the European Union as a whole were “committed to preserving the 2015 deal” meant to prevent Iran “from obtaining a bomb”.