Iran Continues to Blame U.S. and Saudi Arabia for Tehran Attacks

Iranian leaders continue to blame the United States and Saudi Arabia for last week’s terrorist attacks in Tehran although Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has confirmed that the Islamic State was behind the assaults. “Today, we are witnessing the destructive outcomes of state-sponsored terrorism backed by Saudi Arabia, the United States and some (other) reactionary regional countries in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere, including in some European countries,” Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said on Tuesday. In similar allegations, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mostafa Izadi claimed Iran’s security agencies have evidence that prove Washington’s “direct support” for the Islamic State. "We are facing a proxy warfare in the region as a new trick by the arrogant powers against the Islamic Republic," he added. "As the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution (Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei) said, we possess documents and information showing the direct supports by the US imperialism for this highly disgusting stream (the ISIL) in the region which has destroyed the Islamic countries and created a wave of massacres and clashes," he added. 

Comment: Within hours of the Tehran attacks, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) in a statement linked the bloodshed to President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Riyadh, where U.S. and Arab leaders pledged to forge a new security alliance to fight terrorism and counter Iran’s malign activities in the region. “The public opinion in the world, particularly in Iran, sees it as very meaningful that this terrorist action took place a week after the joint summit of the American president and leaders of one of the reactionary regional state, which constantly supports Takfiri terrorists,” said the statement published on the I.R.G.C.’s official website. “The Islamic State’s taking responsibility for it indicates their [U.S. and Saudi Arabia’s] complicity in this brutal act,” it added.

The deputy chief of the I.R.G.C. intelligence went a step further and accused Washington and Riyadh of “ordering” terrorist attacks inside Iran. “The Revolutionary Guards will take revenge against both terrorists and those who ordered them,” General Mohammad Hossein Nejat warned. I.R.G.C. Deputy Commander Brigadier General Hossein Salami issued a similar threat. “We will undoubtedly avenge the blood of those martyred in today’s terrorist attack in Tehran upon terrorists and their associates and supporters.”

Iranian lawmakers and cabinet members also joined the I.R.G.C. in denouncing Washington and Riyadh. “Terror-sponsoring despots threaten to bring the fight to our homeland. Proxies attack what their masters despise most: the seat of democracy,” Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted, referring to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s remarks last month that Riyadh would not wait for Iran to take over Yemen and instead take the battle inside Iran. 

Saudi Arabia has denied any involvement in the Tehran attacks. And Reza Seifollahi, deputy chief of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, confirmed that all of the Tehran attackers were Iranian nationals who had joined the Islamic State. 

The attacks in the Iranian capital and the subsequent arrest of dozens of individuals allegedly linked with the Islamic State indicate that Iran has a growing terrorism problem.