Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei strongly condemned the terror attack on the personnel of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps in southeastern Iran, stressing that foreign spy agencies were behind the deadly bombing.
In a message on Thursday, the Leader extended condolences to the families of the IRGC forces who lost their lives in the Wednesday attack, which occurred in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.
Ayatollah Khamenei urged the relevant organizations to take swift and serious action to deal with the perpetrators.
“It is certain that the perpetrators of this criminal action are linked to the spy agencies of certain regional and extra-regional countries, and the country’s officials should focus on the case and seriously pursue it,” he said, according to his website.
On Wednesday, a car laden with explosives rammed into a bus carrying the military personnel on a road between the cities of Zahedan and Khash, killing 27 IRGC forces and wounding 13.
The so-called Jaish ul-Adl (Army of Justice), which is thought to operate from western Pakistan, has claimed the bombing.
The terrorist group has carried out several recent attacks against security personnel in Sistan-Baluchestan. The Wednesday attack was among the deadliest in Iran in years.
UN Message
In a statement on Thursday, the UN Security Council condemned the attack as “heinous and cowardly”.
UNSC members expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the Iranian government and families of the victims and wished a “speedy and full recovery” to the injured, UN News reported.
They underlined the need to hold “perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice.”
President Hassan Rouhani also denounced the assault and called on Iran’s neighbors not to let “terrorists abuse their territory.” He did not name any country, but was apparently referring to Pakistan, which has previously been criticized by Iranian officials for failing to adopt the required security measures on the shared border to prevent cross-border attacks by militants on Iranian forces.
The UN Security Council condemned the attack as “heinous and cowardly”, underlining the need to hold “perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice”
The president said Iran reserved the right to take action if other countries in the region failed to prevent terrorism, his website reported.
Rouhani advised “certain” states to “pay attention to their legal and neighborly commitments” and to not allow terrorists to operate from their territory.
“Should such a trend continue and they fail to prevent terrorists, we will have the right based on law and international regulations to pursue our rights in due course.”
Root Cause of Terror
Rouhani blamed the United States and Israel for the Wednesday attack, saying, “The root causes of terrorism in our region are America and the Zionists, and unfortunately, some oil-rich countries in the region are the financial sponsors of terrorists.”
He described the attack as “another dirty stain on the black record of the main supporters of terrorism in the White House, Tel Aviv and their regional agents.”
“Those who ordered and carried out this shameless and evil action will undoubtedly face punishment at the hands of the country’s powerful security forces,” he underlined.
The IRGC branch in southeastern Iran said in a statement that a unit of its ground forces had been returning from the Pakistan border area when a vehicle filled with explosives blew up beside their bus.
Video and photos of the aftermath of the blast published by Iranian news agencies showed that the bus was torn apart.
The IRGC statement blamed “takfiri terrorists and mercenaries of the intelligence services of hegemonic powers.”
“Those who ordered and carried out this shameless and evil act will undoubtedly face punishment at the hands of the country’s powerful security forces,” the president stressed
Takfiri is a term used to describe extremists who see other Muslims as heretics, who are punishable by death.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif linked the bombing to a US-sponsored conference on the Middle East which took place in Warsaw, Poland, on Wednesday and Thursday.
Iran was a main topic of discussions at the two-day meeting, which was attended by Iran hawks Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as well as the foreign ministers of several Arab states.
Same Wrong Choices
“Is it no coincidence that Iran is hit by terror on the very day that #WarsawCircus begins? Especially when cohorts of same terrorists cheer it from Warsaw streets & support it with twitter bots?” Zarif said in a post on his Twitter account.
“US seems to always make the same wrong choices, but expect different results,” he added.
On Thursday, Pompeo called for a new era of cooperation to resolve conflicts in the Middle East. But he claimed that peace and stability in the region could not be achieved without confronting Iran.
“They’re a malign influence in Lebanon, in Yemen, in Syria, in Iraq, the three H's: the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah. These are real threats; there are others as well. But you can’t get peace in the Middle East without pushing back against Iran,” he alleged.
Jaish ul-Adl has carried out attacks against Iranian security personnel since its inception in 2012.
Earlier this month, it was blamed for an attack on a base of the IRGC-linked Basij volunteer forces in Nikshahr that left one dead and five others wounded.
The terror group also said it had carried out two bombings that wounded three police officers in Zahedan at the end of January.
And in October, the group kidnapped at least 10 security personnel, including IRGC forces, at a border post in Mirjaveh. Five were later released.
In September, gunmen killed at least 24 people at a military parade in the southwestern city of Ahvaz.
Both the self-styled Islamic State terror group and Iranian ethnic Arab separatists claimed they were behind the assault.
