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TOP STORIES
President Donald Trump is suggesting that Iran shares some
of the blame for twin attacks by extremists on its parliament and a
shrine, insisting that those who sponsor terrorism "risk falling
victim to the evil they promote." Hours after conciliatory
comments from his State Department, the president on Wednesday offered
a seemingly contradictory statement, providing solace to the victims
while delivering a broadside against Tehran. The Islamic State group
claimed responsibility for attacks on Iran's parliament and the tomb of
its revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The assaults
killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 40. "We grieve and
pray for the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in Iran, and for
the Iranian people, who are going through such challenging times,"
Trump said. "We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk
falling victim to the evil they promote."
The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to
advance a bill that would impose new sanctions on Iran, the same day at
least 12 people were killed in attacks in Tehran, as lawmakers planned
to add a package of sanctions on Russia to the measure. The vote was
92-7 on a procedural motion to end debate on the Iran sanctions bill,
clearing the way for a vote later on passage of the legislation. Chuck
Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, said most members of his party
supported the Iran bill, but that they would only agree to let it go
ahead because they expected it would be amended to include "a
strong package" of new sanctions on Russia as well. Many lawmakers
have been clamoring for new sanctions on Russia over its alleged
meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, annexation of Ukraine's Crimea
region and support for Syria's government in that country's
six-year-long civil war.
Islamic State members who carried out unprecedented
attacks that killed 17 people in Tehran were recruited from within
Iran, an Iranian official said Thursday, as an investigation into the
incidents intensified. "Those individuals who carried out the
attacks on Wednesday in Tehran had joined Islamic State from different
places inside Iran," Reza Seifollahi, deputy secretary of Iran's
Supreme National Security Council, said on state television. He didn't
specify whether the attackers were Iranian nationals. Iranian
authorities haven't released their identities but the Intelligence
Ministry published grisly photos purporting to be of five attackers'
bodies, along with their first names. The twin attacks took place at
Iran's parliament in Tehran and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, the Islamic Republic's founding figure, which lies south of
the city. They were the first Islamic State-claimed attacks inside
Iran, bringing the regional battle against the Sunni Muslim extremist
group to the heart of Shiite Iran.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
President Trump has for weeks pressed disparate forces
throughout the Middle East to band together with Saudi Arabia to fight
terrorism and punish Iran, long viewed by hawks inside his
administration as the main source of instability and terrorism in the region.
But in his push to empower the Saudis, Trump may have unleashed
problems, including increased sectarianism and regional strife, that
are as bad as the one he was trying to fix, inflaming tensions that
could imperil the battle against the Islamic State and other critical
U.S. priorities. "That's the fundamental problem in the Middle
East," said Phil Gordon, a former official in the Obama White
House who focused on the region. "Solving one problem in the
region inevitably exacerbates others and can easily lead to
escalation."
Iran's foreign minister on Thursday rejected Donald
Trump's condolences for deadly attacks in Tehran, calling the U.S.
president's words repugnant. Trump had said he prayed for the victims
of Wednesday's attacks that were claimed by Islamic State, but added
that "states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the
evil they promote." Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on his Twitter
account: "Repugnant White House statement .... Iranian people
reject such U.S. claims of friendship." Suicide bombers and gunmen
attacked the Iranian parliament and Ayatollah Khomeini's mausoleum in
Tehran, killing at least 13 people in an unprecedented assault that
Iran's Revolutionary Guards blamed on regional rival Saudi Arabia.
Islamic State claimed responsibility and threatened more attacks
against Iran's majority Shi'ite population, seen by the hardline Sunni
militants as heretics. Saudi Arabia said it was not involved.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on
Wednesday close discussions were needed with Turkey on worrying
developments in the region, Turkish state broadcaster TRT and other
channels reported. Zarif was speaking to reporters on arriving at a
hotel in the Turkish capital for talks with President Tayyip Erdogan
amid efforts to defuse the Qatar crisis -- prompted on Monday when the
UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and others severed diplomatic ties with it
over alleged support for Islamist groups and Iran.
Bahrain's foreign minister, keeping up the pressure on
Qatar in a deepening Arab row, reiterated on Thursday a demand that
Doha distance itself from Iran and stop support for "terrorist
organizations". Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab
Emirates and several other countries severed relations with Doha on
Monday, accusing it of supporting Islamist militants and their arch-foe
Iran - charges Qatar says are baseless. In an interview published by
Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed
al-Khalifa said conditions posed by the four countries for a resolution
of the crisis were "crystal clear".
More moves against Qatar, including further curbs on
business, remain on the table in a row with Arab neighbors, the United
Arab Emirates (UAE) said on Wednesday, warning against allowing its
Gulf adversary Iran to exploit the unprecedented rift. In a Reuters
interview, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said
it would be very complex to disentangle the "very diverse"
business ties between Qatar and its neighbors but suggested this might
be necessary. "You cannot rule out further measures," he
said. "We hope that cooler heads will prevail, that wiser heads
will prevail and we will not get to that," he said. Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain severed diplomatic relations with Qatar in a
coordinated move on Monday, accusing it of support for Islamist
militants and Iran. Qatar strongly denies supporting terrorism, and on
Tuesday called for talks to settle the dispute.
TERRORISM
Iran said on Thursday that gunmen and bombers who attacked
Tehran were Iranian members of Islamic State who had fought in the
militants' strongholds in Syria and Iraq - deepening the regional
ramifications of the assaults. The attackers raided Iran's parliament
and Ayatollah Khomeini's mausoleum on Wednesday morning, in a rare
strike at the heart of the Islamic Republic. Authorities said the death
count had risen to 17 and scores were wounded. Iran's powerful
Revolutionary Guards have also said regional rival Saudi Arabia was
involved, further fuelling tensions between Sunni Muslim power Riyadh
and Shi'ite power Tehran as they vie for influence in the Gulf. Saudi
Arabia dismissed the accusation. Iran's intelligence ministry said on
Thursday five of the attackers who died in the assault had been
identified as Iranians who had joined the hardline Sunni Muslim
militants of Islamic State on its main battlegrounds in Iraq and Syria.
Islamic State said in a statement on Wednesday that five
of its fighters were responsible for a raid on Iran's parliament and
the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini, using assault rifles, grenades, and
suicide vests, and killing and injuring almost 60 people before dying.
The Sunni militant group also threatened Iran's majority Shi'ite
population with more attacks, saying "the caliphate will not miss
a chance to spill their blood" until Sharia law is implemented.
SAUDI-IRAN TENSIONS
If the Islamic State did carry out the twin terrorist
attacks on Wednesday in Iran, as the militant group claims, it struck
at an opportune time to further the cause of chaos. Iran rushed to
blame Saudi Arabia, its chief rival in a contest for power playing out
in proxy wars in at least two other countries in the region, Syria and
Yemen. Saudi Arabia, however, seemed too preoccupied to respond. Its
state-run news media was dominated by criticism of its neighbor and
ostensible ally, Qatar, after the Saudis and other Arab allies cut off
ties to Qatar as part of a different struggle for power within the
Persian Gulf. The attacks in Tehran threatened to escalate the broader
regional conflict between the two heavyweight powers, Iran and Saudi
Arabia, at a time when the Western-allied gulf bloc is divided against
itself.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards say Saudi Arabia supported
ISIS in the deadly twin attacks in Tehran on Wednesday, an accusation
likely to infuriate the Saudi kingdom amid high tensions in the region.
At least 12 people were killed when six attackers mounted simultaneous
gun and suicide bomb assaults on Iran's Parliament building and the
tomb of the republic's revolutionary founder, in one of the most
audacious assaults to hit Tehran in decades. The targets were highly
symbolic. Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran have had
strained relations throughout their history and have been involved in a
sectarian feud for more than 1,000 years. The two rivals are on opposite
sides of the violent conflicts in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere, and given
the tensions, Iran's implication about the attack isn't a great shock.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
The growing rift within the Gulf Cooperation Council, the
Saudi-led regional alliance, the isolation of Qatar and Wednesday's
terror attacks in Iran represent a witches' brew of trouble for US
policy in the Gulf and the attainment of the Trump administration's
goals in the region. It's too early to predict to what extent, if at
all, these events will reshape Arab politics or power balances. But
here are the key takeaways: If ISIS' claim of responsibility is true,
it would mark its first major operation within Iran. Before Wednesday
morning's mayhem in the Iranian Parliament and in the mausoleum housing
the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founding father of Iran's Islamic
Revolution, Tehran routinely branded itself as an island of stability
in an otherwise tumultuous neighborhood. With destabilization of
regional bulwarks after the Arab Spring -- Iraq, Syria and Yemen --
Iran positioned itself as an Islamic heavyweight not to be ignored.
Islamic State claimed credit for a coordinated attack on
Iranian government targets Wednesday morning that killed at least 12
people. We're reminded of the warning about those who live by the
sword. Discussion of security vulnerabilities is taboo in the Islamic
Republic, and the details are likely to remain murky. Several
assailants infiltrated the Majlis, Iran's Parliament, and opened fire
before security forces neutralized them. A suicide bomber also struck
outside the mausoleum of regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini. No act of
terrorism is justified, including these, but the irony is hard to miss.
Khomeini's followers pioneered many of the tactics deployed by today's
Islamists, Sunni and Shiite. These range from hostage-taking as
statecraft, to behemoth suicide bombs like the one that killed 241 U.S.
service members in Beirut in 1983, to the Iranian-made improvised
explosive devices that wreaked havoc on American forces in Iraq after
2003, to fatwas issued against blasphemous novelists and cartoonists.
After years of waiting and wanting to strike Iran, the
Islamic State claims to have finally done so. According to recent news
reports, four militants went on a shooting spree in Iran's parliament,
while other operatives detonated a bomb inside the mausoleum of
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic,
killing 12 people. If the Islamic State indeed ordered the attacks, it
has struck at the temporal and spiritual heart of the Iranian
revolutionary government The Islamic State has aimed to strike Iran
since at least 2007, when it openly threatened to attack the country
for supporting the Shiite-dominated government in Iraq. It regards
Persian Shiites as apostate traitors who have sold out the Sunni Arabs
to Israel and the United States. This determination to strike Iran
marked a key difference with al Qaeda, which long held off attacking
the Islamic Republic in order to use it as a rear base and financial
hub.
Earlier today, gunmen attacked the Iranian Parliament and
the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran, Iran, killing at least 12
people and wounding many others. Don't be deceived by the relatively
low casualty figures -- this attack is a big deal. The Iranian
Parliament is Iran's valued pretense to Islamic democracy. And Khomeini
is the father of the Iranian revolution. He made Iran what it is today.
This is was a strike at the heart of the Shia-rooted Islamic Republic.
A familiar organization appears to be responsible. The Islamic State
has published videos online which show its operatives running around
the Parliament, so its claim to responsibility appears genuine. The
nature of the assault also lends credibility to ISIS responsibility.
After all, ISIS detests Shiites as heretics, specifically the sect's
veneration of martyrs and religious leaders. They believe that visual
homage to these individuals is an affront to Allah's singular glory.
And this action serves two further purposes for ISIS.
There is only one acceptable response to Wednesday's
deadly terrorist attacks in Iran: swift and unequivocal condemnation of
the perpetrators, and condolences to the victims. By joining the other
world leaders who have offered their sympathy, U.S. President Donald
Trump can reaffirm both America's standing in the community of nations
and its determination to defeat terrorism, whatever and wherever its
source. Yes, there is an obvious irony here: The U.S. has rightly
condemned Iran's long history of support for violence and funding of
groups such as Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas. Washington's
sanctions on the Tehran government for this, as well as human-rights
abuses and violations of United Nations' strictures on missile defense,
will remain in place. But this is not the moment to talk of just
deserts.
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