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TEHRAN – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that a country in the Persian Gulf, allied with the United States, was behind the attack of a military parade that left 25 dead and nearly 70 wounded .
Mr. Rouhani did not identify the country he accused of the attack, which was claimed by both the Islamic State and an Arab separatist group. But Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are close military allies of the United States, who regard Iran as an enemy, particularly because of its support for militant groups across the Middle East.
"All the small mercenary countries we see in this region are backed by America," said Rouhani. "It is the Americans who incite them and provide them with the means to commit these crimes."
Saturday's attack, in which militants disguised as soldiers opened fire at an annual military parade in Ahvaz, in the oil-rich southwest, was the deadliest in the country in nearly a century. decade. Women and children scattered among soldiers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps after heavy gunfights broke out, chaos captured live on state television.
Tehran on Sunday summoned British, Danish and Dutch diplomats, accusing them of harboring "members of the terrorist group" who launched the attack. The officials then summoned the UAE envoy, what was known as the "irresponsible and insulting statements" of an Emirati adviser, according to the semi-official Iranian news agency.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, writing on Twitter on Saturday, accused countries in the region and their "American masters" of financing and arming the separatists. "Iran will respond quickly and decisively to the defense of Iranian lives," he wrote.
The parade in Ahvaz was one of many celebrations of the beginning of the long war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s, commemorating the "Week of Sacred Defense". The attack left at least 25 dead and nearly 70 injured. according to the official news agency of the Islamic Republic, which stated that the gunmen wore military uniforms and targeted a platform where were commanders of the army and police. State television later reported that the four gunmen had been killed.
At least eight of the dead have served in the Revolutionary Guards, an elite paramilitary unit that responds to Iran's supreme leader, according to the Tasnim news agency. The Revolutionary Guards warned Sunday they would seek "a deadly and ruthless revenge in the near future."
Tensions in Iran have increased since the Trump administration withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal this year and began to reinstate the sanctions that had been relaxed under the agreement. Washington has also urged Iran to stop what it calls "malicious activities" in the region.
The US government has strongly denounced Saturday's attack, saying it "condemns all acts of terrorism and the loss of innocent lives."
Initially, the authorities described the attackers as "takfiri gunmen", a term previously used to describe the militants of the Islamic State. Iran has been deeply involved in the fight against the group, also known as EIIL and ISIL, in Iraq, and it supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during his country's long civil war.
But Iranian officials later appeared to believe the Arab separatists' claim of responsibility for the region, once known for its nocturnal attacks on unprotected oil pipelines. The Islamic State initially declared that the attack targeted Mr. Rouhani, but the president was at the time in Tehran, and the Islamic State militants have made a series of false statements since their major defeat in Iraq and in Syria.
News agencies and government officials later appeared to agree that Arab separatists were behind the attacks. The separatists accuse the Persian-dominated Iranian government of discriminating against the country's ethnic Arab minority.
Iran has accused its rival in the Middle East, the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia, of funding Arab separatists. Saudi media did not immediately report the attack, but a UK-based, UK-based Farsi-language satellite channel immediately broadcast an interview with an Ahvazi activist claiming responsibility.
In a message on Twitter, Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran's ambassador to Britain, described the decision as a hateful chain of action, saying his country would file a complaint with the British authorities. On Sunday morning, a Foreign Ministry statement also criticized Britain and said Tehran had "already warned" Danish and Dutch diplomats against their governments hosting Arab separatists.
Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen condemned the attack in Iran and stressed that there would be "consequences" if officials had ties to Denmark.
Yacoub Hor al-Tostari, a spokesman for the Arab struggle movement for the release of Ahvaz, told the Associated Press that members of a group of activists defended the group. Ahvazi had led the attack. The attack has undermined the Iranian government "the day it wants to let the world know that it is powerful and in control," said Tostari.
