An Iranian government official denied tehran was involved in the attack on Sir Salman Rushdie, in remarks that were the country’s first public comments on the knife attack.
Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, made the remarks at a briefing for reporters.
“We in the incident of the attack on Salman Rushdie in the United States do not believe that anyone deserves guilt and accusation besides him and his followers,” Kanaani said. “No one has the right to accuse Iran in this regard. “
He added: “We who the insults uttered and the help he won were an opposite insult to fanatics of all religions. “
He insinuated that Sir Salman provoked the attack on himself.
“Salman Rushdie exposed himself to popular anger and fury by insulting the sanctity of Islam and crossing the red lines of more than 1. 5 billion Muslims, as well as the red lines of fanatics of all divine religions,” Kanaani said.
Sir Salman, 75, was stabbed Friday while attending an event in western New York. He suffered from a ruptured liver and severed nerves in one arm and one eye, his agent said. You are in danger of losing your injured eye.
His attacker, Hadi Matar, 24, pleaded guilty to fees stemming from the attack through his lawyer.
The laureate has faced death threats for his book, The Satanic Verses, for more than 30 years.
Iran’s past ideal leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or Islamic edict, that prevented his death. An Iranian base had set up a bonus of more than $3 million (£2. 5 million) for the author.
Kanaani said Iran “had no data other than that reported through the American media. “
The West “condemning the movements of the aggressor and extolling the movements of the insulter with Islamic ideals is a contradictory attitude,” Kanaani added.
Khomeini, in poor physical condition in the last year of his life after the bitter Iran-Iraq war decimated the country’s economy, issued the fatwa on Sir Salman in 1989.
The Islamic edict came amid a violent uproar in the Muslim world over the novel, which some saw as blasphemy over the life of the Prophet Muhammad.
While the fatwas can be revised or revoked, Iran’s current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who succeeded Khomeini, has never done so. In February 2017, Khamenei said: “The decree is the one issued by Imam Khomeini.
Since 1979, Iran has targeted dissidents. Tensions with the West, namely the United States, have risen since then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in 2018.
A drone strike ordered by Trump killed a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard general in 2020, further stoking tensions.
Last week, the United States indicted in absentia a member of the Guard for allegedly plotting to kill former Trump adviser and Iranian hawk John Bolton. Former U. S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and an aide are 24-hour security for alleged threats from Iran.
Meanwhile, U. S. prosecutors say Iran tried to kidnap an Iranian opposition activist living in New York in 2021. In recent days, a man armed with an attack rifle was arrested near his home.
Other foreign ministry denials have included Tehran’s movement of weapons to Yemen’s Houthi rebels amid that country’s long civil war. Independent experts, Western nations and UN experts have tracked down parts of weapons such as Iran.