Iranian President Hassan Rouhani yesterday accused a US Gulf Arab ally of supporting the gunmen who killed at least 29 people in an attack in Ahvaz on a military parade and vowed to respond “within the framework of the law.”
“One of the southern countries in the Persian Gulf is backing them financially, providing equipment and political support,” Rouhani said.
While he did not name the country, the remarks are likely aimed at regional rival Saudi Arabia, which is backing US President Donald Trump’s drive to isolate Iran and reimpose crippling sanctions against its economy.
Photo: EPA
The two Middle East nations are stuck in proxy wars in some of the region’s worst conflicts from Yemen to Syria.
Rouhani accused the US of being a “bully” that wants to create insecurity in the Islamic Republic.
Speaking before leaving Tehran to attend the UN General Assembly in New York, Rouhani accused US-backed Gulf Arab states of providing financial and military support for anti-government ethnic Arab groups.
“The small puppet countries in the region are backed by America, and the United States is provoking them and giving them the necessary capabilities,” he said.
“Iran’s answer [to this attack] is forthcoming within the framework of law and our national interests,” Rouhani said, adding that the US will regret its “aggressiveness.”
“Hopefully we will overcome these sanctions with the least possible costs and make America regret its aggressiveness toward other countries, and particularly Iran,” he said.
Ahvaz is the capital of the Khuzestan Province, which borders Iraq and is home to a large Sunni population and some of the country’s largest oil fields.
An Iranian ethnic Arab opposition movement called the Ahvaz National Resistance, which seeks a separate state in Khuzestan, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Islamic State militants also claimed responsibility.
Neither claim provided evidence. All four attackers were killed.
The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said that the individuals behind the Ahvaz shooting might have had ties to some European countries.
The ambassadors of the Netherlands and Denmark as well as the charge d’affaires at the British embassy in Tehran were on Saturday evening summoned separately over the shooting, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
Iran had previously warned about “members of these terrorist groups” residing in Denmark and the Netherlands, and had called for their arrest and trial, IRNA reported, citing ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi.
The ministry yesterday also summoned the United Arab Emirates’ charge d’affaires over comments made about the attack, state television said.
The Saturday attack occurred at a military parade as assailants opened fire, killing dozens of Revolutionary Guards members and civilians, including a child and a journalist.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
The tale of a middle-aged Chinese man, or “uncle,” who disguised himself as a woman to secretly film and share videos of his hookups with more than 1,000 men shook China’s social media, spurring fears for public health, privacy and marital fidelity. The hashtag “red uncle” was the top trending item on China’s popular microblog Sina Weibo yesterday, drawing at least 200 million views as users expressed incredulity and shock. The online posts told of how the man in the eastern city of Nanjing had lured 1,691 heterosexual men into sexual encounters at his home that he then recorded and distributed online. The
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
CEREMONY EXPECTED: Abdullah Ocalan said he believes in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons, and called on the group to put that into practice The jailed leader of a Kurdish militant group yesterday renewed a call for his fighters to lay down their arms, days before a symbolic disarmament ceremony is expected to take place as a first concrete step in a peace process with the Turkish state. In a seven-minute video message broadcast on pro-Kurdish Medya Haber’s YouTube channel, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said that the peace initiative had reached a stage that required practical steps. “It should be considered natural for you to publicly ensure the disarmament of the relevant groups in a way that addresses the expectations
RSS