Iran: US, Saudis supported attacks

Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran

Iranian leaders on Friday accused the United States and Saudi Arabia of supporting the Islamic State-claimed dual attacks that killed 17 people in Tehran this week, as thousands of Iranians attended a funeral ceremony for the victims.

The country’s Supreme Leader said the attacks will add to the hatred that Iranians harbor toward the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

In a condolence message ahead of a funeral for the victims, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the attack “will not damage the Iranian nation’s determination, and the obvious result is nothing except an increase in hate for the governments of the United States and their stooges in the region like Saudi [Arabia],” state media reported.

On Thursday, Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said investigators were working to determine whether Saudi Arabia had a role in Wednesday’s attacks but said it was too soon to say if that was the case.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. The IS media arm, Aamaq, released a video Thursday evening showing what it claimed was a message from the Tehran attackers. The four-minute video shows three masked men sitting on a floor holding automatic rifles. One of the men speaks in the sorani Kurdish dialect common among Kurds in northeastern Iraq and northwestern Iran.