Foreign Ministry spokesperson Marzieh Afkham strongly condemned the recent hostage taking incident in Australia and said terrorist acts in the name of Islam are "unjustifiable".
Afkham said, "Resorting to inhumane methods and spreading terror and panic in the name of the divine religion of Islam are not justifiable under any circumstances," IRNA reported on Monday.
She also expressed surprise over "inaccurate" and "incomplete" media reports about the identity and record of the assailant and said, "The relevant authorities in Australia had already been informed about the mental state of the hostage taker who took asylum in Australia about two decades ago."
Police have identified the gunman as 50-year-old Man Haron Monis whose previous name was "Mohammad Manteqi". He was granted asylum in Australia in 1996.
On December 1, in a message posted on his Tweeter account, he had described Iran and the supporters of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as terrorists.
According to police sources, the gunman and two hostages were killed during the rescue operation.
