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WASHINGTON / LONDON (Reuters) – US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Monday rejected Iran's threats of revenge after Saturday's deadly attack at a military parade in southwestern Iran.
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Monday that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had paid the attackers who killed 25 people in a military parade and that Iran would "severely punish" the perpetrators. carnage.
The deputy leader of the Iran Revolutionary Guards also accused the United States and Israel of being involved in the attack and said they should expect a devastating reaction.
Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon that the Iranian threat did not bother him.
"We were very clear that they should not take us that way. And I hope this cooler and wiser head will prevail, "said Mattis.
"They have so far accused at least three countries and I think a terrorist group. We will see how long the list goes. But it would be nice if they knew what they were talking about before they started talking. "
In the southwestern city of Ahvaz, thousands of people gathered in the streets to mourn the victims of Saturday's assault, many singing "Death to Israel and America". Twelve members of the elite body of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards were among the dead.
Coffins, wrapped in flags, were worn by people in mourning. Many of them had pictures of a four-year-old boy killed in the incident, one of the worst attacks on Iran's most powerful military force.
Iran's intelligence ministry said 22 people were arrested in connection with the attack.
"Weapons, explosive materials and communications equipment were seized from the house belonging to the five-member terrorist group that led the attack," a ministry statement said, according to the agency's news agency. Tasnim official press.
Gunmen fired on an audio-visual medium in Ahvaz, where officials gathered to watch an annual parade marking the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980-1988.
Fars and the IRNA news agencies said on Monday that five attackers had been killed, not four as previously reported by the state media. The body of the fifth assailant was not identified because he was involved with other victims, Fars said.
"On the basis of reports, this cowardly act was done by people that the Americans come to help when they are trapped in Syria and Iraq and are paid by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates," he said. said Khamenei on his website.
In a speech broadcast on state television, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, guards, said: "You have already seen our revenge. You will see that our response will be overwhelming and devastating and you will regret what you have done.
According to the Tasnim News Agency, Salami said the "horrible crime" revealed the dark side of an alliance created by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel to counter Iran's influence in the region. .
The secretary of the Iranian National Security Council said Tehran should talk to its neighbors to avoid tensions.
"It is essential to be fully aware and to increase our constructive dialogues to neutralize the plots of enemies who want to create suspicions and disagreements among the countries of the region," said Ali Shamkhani.
He also said that US sanctions against Iran were illegal and that President Donald Trump used them as a tool for "personal revenge".
MATTIS "WOKEN UP" BY THE NEWS
Mattis said it was clear that Iran still did not know what had happened. He stressed that the United States had no prior knowledge that such an attack was possible.
"I'm not awakened by phone calls on anything we know will happen. It's just ridiculous to say that we have something to do with it, "he said. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, interviewed by a Fox News interviewer if the United States played a role in the attack, said, "When you have a security incident at home, blaming others is a huge error.
The loss of innocent lives has been tragic, added Pompeo. Saudi Arabia and Israel have not responded.
The accusations against the Gulf countries will certainly upset the regional enemy of Iran, Saudi Arabia. The oil superpowers are waging a war to exert influence across the Middle East, supporting opposing parties in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon.
It is highly unlikely, however, that the guards will directly hit one of his enemies and risk triggering a regional conflict.
Analysts said the violence had led to increased domestic support for the guards, which they could use to silence their critics, including the pragmatic president Hassan Rouhani.
Rouhani developed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with the world powers that triggered a cautious détente with Washington before tensions escalated with Trump's decision in May to withdraw from the agreement and re-impose the sanctions against Tehran.
Iran's intelligence minister, Mahmoud Alavi, said a network of suspects had been arrested in connection with the attack, the Mizan news agency reported. He did not elaborate.
Karim Dahimi, a human rights activist in London, told Reuters that local sources said more than 300 people had been arrested in the cities of Ahvaz, Khorramshahr and Abadan in recent days, mainly from the Sunni Muslim community.
Ahvaz's national resistance, an Iranian Arab ethnic opposition movement seeking a separate state in the oil-rich Khuzestan province, and the Islamic State have both claimed responsibility.
The guards corps was created after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shiite system and revolutionary values. He responds to Ayatollah Khamenei and has an estimated army of 125,000 men with military, naval and air units.
Report by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London and Phil Stewart in Washington; Written by Michael Georgy and Phil Stewart, edited by Richard Balmforth and James Dalgleish
