Iran FM slams Trump’s ‘repugnant’ statement

The Iranian foreign minister has condemned a White House statement on the terror attack in Tehran yesterday which accused Iran of sponsoring terrorism, calling it “repugnant”.

The statement issued said US President Donald Trump was praying for the victims and gave his consolation, but warned that “states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote”.

Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, responded by tweeting that the attackers were “backed by US clients” and that Iran and its people “reject such US claims of friendship”.

Read more: Saudi Arabia, US behind terror attacks 

The tweet hints at Saudi Arabia and other US allies in the Gulf, and links in with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp’s claim that Saudi Arabia was behind the attack and that it vows to take revenge.

Javad Zarif himself tweeted earlier: “Terror-sponsoring despots threaten to bring the fight to our homeland. Proxies attack what their masters despise most: the seat of democracy,” pointing towards alleged Saudi funding of armed Sunni Syrian opposition groups which stand as rivals to the armed Shia militias that Iran backs and funds.

Yesterday’s attack saw Daesh gunmen and suicide bombers storming the parliament building and the shrine of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The attackers are reportedly of Iranian origin, having travelled to Mosul, Iraq, to join Daesh and returned last summer to plan and perform attacks on Iranian targets and Shia holy sites.

Read: Severing ties with Qatar not a solution says Iran

Seventeen people were killed during the attack with 52 injured. All of the militants were killed except one female attacker who was captured.

The hostile statements and tweets come amid a turbulent time in US-Iranian relations, with Trump recently seeming to show his preference and support for Saudi Arabia as a regional ally rather than Iran.