World #2: Iran blames the US and Saudi Arabia for attack

(by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin and Michael Georgy, Reuters) – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed on Monday the attackers who killed 25 people at a military parade on Saturday had been paid by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and that Iran would “severely punish” those behind the bloodshed.

The deputy head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also accused the United States and Israel of involvement in the attack and said they should expect a devastating response.

In the southwestern city of Ahvaz, thousands packed the streets to mourn the victims of Saturday’s assault, many chanting “Death to Israel and America.” Twelve members of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were among the dead.

…In one of the worst such attacks against Iran’s most powerful military force, gunmen fired on a viewing stand in Ahvaz on Saturday where officials had gathered to watch an annual parade marking the start of Iran’s 1980-88 war with Iraq.

Iran’s Fars and IRNA news agencies said on Monday five attackers were killed, not four as previously reported by state media. The body of the fifth assailant had not been identified as it was mixed up with other casualties, Fars said.

“Based on reports, this cowardly act was done by people who the Americans come to help when they are trapped in Syria and Iraq, and are paid by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. …It is America who supports these little mercenary countries in the region. It is Americans who are provoking them. It is Americans who provide them with their required necessities to perpetrate such crimes,” Iranian President Rouhani claimed on his official website.

Guards Brigadier General Hossein Salami, in a speech broadcast on state TV, said: “You have seen our revenge before. You will see that our response will be crushing and devastating and you will regret what you have done.”

Iranian President Hassan Rowhani. Photo: AFP

Tasnim news agency quoted Salami as saying the “horrific crime” exposed the dark side of an alliance that the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel had created to counter Iranian influence in the region. … It is, however, highly unlikely the Iranian Guards will strike any of its foes directly and risk setting off a regional conflict. …

The UAE (United Arab Emirates), a close ally of Saudi Arabia and Washington, rejected Iran’s allegations alluding to its involvement in the violence.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, when asked if the United States played any role in the attack, said: “When you have a security incident at home, blaming others is an enormous mistake.”  The loss of innocent lives was tragic, Pompeo added.

There has been no reaction from Saudi Arabia or Israel.

Karim Dahimi, a human rights activist in London, told Reuters local sources had said more than 300 people had been arrested in the cities of Ahvaz, Khorramshahr and Abadan in recent days, mostly from the Sunni Muslim community. [Iran’s Islamic clerics are Shi’ite Muslims. Iran is a Shi’ite-majority country.].

Ahvaz National Resistance, an Iranian ethnic Arab opposition movement which seeks a separate state in oil-rich Khuzestan province, and Islamic State have both claimed responsibility.

The Iranian Guard Corps was set up after the 1979 Islamic revolution to protect the Shi’ite clerical ruling system and revolutionary “values.” It answers to Ayatollah Khamenei and has an estimated 125,000-strong military with army, navy and air units.