Iran’s press divided over blame for terror
IRAN’S press yesterday largely condemned the jihadist attacks that killed 129 people in Paris and expressed sympathy for the victims, but conservative newspapers put the blame on France’s policies in Syria.
In their first reactions to the events of late Friday, Iranian newspapers reflected the country’s divisions between reformists and hardliners fiercely critical of the West.
Moderate President Hassan Rouhani condemned the coordinated assaults claimed by the Islamic State group as “crimes against humanity”.
Condemning the “horror at the heart of Paris”, reformist daily Shargh reported on a small vigil of Iranians who gathered outside the French embassy in Tehran late on Saturday.
In an editorial, reformist university professor Sadeq Zibakalam condemned conservatives for their “lack of sympathy” with France over the attacks and said more people should have attended the vigil.
Another reformist daily, Etemad, also condemned the attacks, saying: “The world is mourning with Paris.”
But Etemad noted there had not been the same outpouring of global shock over Thursday’s bombings in Beirut, also claimed by IS, that left 44 dead. It condemned the “silence over the Beirut attack”, which targeted a bastion of Shiite movement Hezbollah, a key ally of Iran.
Centrist pro-government newspaper Iran said the attacks “shocked and disgusted not only the people of France but the whole world,” saying they were “a sign of weakness” as IS faces increasing defeats on the battlefield.
Ultra-conservative newspapers suggested the attacks were the consequences of French policies, with some parroting conspiracy theories that claim IS is a creation of the West.
In Kayhan – Iran’s oldest and most-vocal hardline paper – editor Hossein Shariatmadari repeated a conspiracy theory often cited in Iranian media that IS is a creation of the West and Israel under an operation dubbed “Hornet’s Nest”.
“Now the designers of the Hornet’s Nest must await the return of the wasps to the real nest – wasps that carry automatic rifles and grenades,” Shariatmadari wrote.
Another newspaper, Vatan-e Emrooz, said: “The West eventually tasted its own cooking in Syria,” prompting a backlash from Iranians like one Twitter user, who wrote: “Damn the person who wrote the headline for this paper.” — AFP