Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday the United States wants to create insecurity in the Islamic Republic, a day after an attack on a military parade that killed 12 members of the country’s elite Revolutionary Guards.
Speaking before leaving Tehran to attend the annual UN General Assembly in New York, Rouhani accused U.S.-backed Gulf Arab states of providing financial and military support for anti-government ethnic Arab groups in Iran.
“America is acting like a bully towards the rest of the world…and thinks it can act based on brute force,” said Rouhani, who engineered Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal that ushered in a cautious detente with Washington before tensions flared anew with U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to quit the accord.
“But our people will resist and the government is ready to confront America. We will overcome this situation (sanctions) and America will regret choosing the wrong path.”
In a statement, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard added that those behind the attack will face “deadly and unforgiving revenge in the near future.” The attack was the deadliest such attack in Iran in nearly a decade. The Guard said in its statement that it was willing to pursue the attackers “regionally and beyond.”
Iran’s leaders have blamed the attack on the United States, saying an unnamed U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf aided the militants.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday summoned the United Arab Emirates’ charge d’affaires over comments made about the bloodshed in the southwestern city of Ahvaz. The state-run PressTV said the action was taken over comments by an unnamed UAE official, without giving details. The Gulf Arab state of Qatar, which is at odds with U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE, condemned the assault on the military parade, which wounded at least 70 people.
AP, Reuters, Haaretz, al Jazeera.
