The United Nations Security Council on Thursday strongly condemned the “cowardly terrorist attack” that caused at least 84 deaths in Iran and was claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).
In a statement, the members of this council condemned the attack and addressed their “deepest condolences to the families of the victims” of the attack, which took place on Wednesday near the ceremonies commemorating the death of General Qasem Soleimani, assassinated in Baghdad in 2020 by order of then-President of the United States, Donald Trump.
“Terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most dangerous threats to international peace and security,” they stressed, also highlighting the “need to hold responsible the perpetrators, organizers, financiers and supporters” of the attack and bring them to justice. justice. .
According to official data, the double explosion in Kerman, in southern Iran, caused 84 deaths and 284 injuries, some of them seriously, so the total number of fatalities could increase.
The first explosion occurred around 2:45 p.m. local time, about 700 meters from the Iranian general’s tomb, and the second 15 minutes later.
The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the attack, in a statement released through its channels on the social network Telegram, stating that two of its members “went towards a large gathering” of people near Soleimani’s tomb in Kerman. and “they detonated the belts with explosives.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had previously promised a “severe response” to the “diabolical and criminal enemies of the Iranian nation” who carried out the attack.
For his part, the head of the Qods force, the foreign operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, General Esmail Qaani, had suggested, in response to IS claims, that the perpetrators of the attack had been “supplied by the United States and the Zionist regime”.
The US State Department considered any suggestion of involvement by the United States or Israel, whose government did not comment on the attack, absurd.
The attack was the deadliest in Iran since 1978, when an arson attack killed at least 377 people at an Abadan cinema, according to AFP archives.
Faced with one of the most brutal attacks in recent decades in Iran, the authorities of the Islamic Republic guaranteed that the “perpetrators” of the attack will be arrested by the security forces and secret services and that their supporters “will fear the wrath of the nation.” Iranian”.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for several attacks on Iranian soil in the past, the most recent being, before the Kerman attack, an attack on a mausoleum in the southern city of Shiraz, which killed 15 people in October 2022.
The double explosion occurred in a very tense regional context since the start of the war, on October 7, between Israel and Hamas, and the day after the elimination of a senior official of the Palestinian Islamist movement in an attack near Beirut, attributed to Israel. .
Source: TSF
