Europe 1 with AFP 9:33 a.m., August 15, 2022
"We categorically deny" any link between the aggressor and Iran, and "no one has the right to accuse the Islamic Republic of Iran", said Nasser Kanani, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Tehran's first official reaction to the attack on Salman Rushdie.
"In this attack, only Salman Rushdie and his supporters deserve blame and even condemnation."
Iran on Monday "categorically" denied any connection to the assailant who stabbed Salman Rushdie, author of the novel
Satanic Verses
, at a conference in the northern United States on Friday.
"We categorically deny" any link between the aggressor and Iran, and "no one has the right to accuse the Islamic Republic of Iran", said Nasser Kanani, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Tehran's first official reaction to the attack on the British writer.
"In this attack, only Salman Rushdie and his supporters deserve to be blamed and even condemned," he stressed during his weekly press conference in Tehran.
"By insulting the sacred things of Islam and crossing the red lines of more than one and a half billion Muslims and all followers of divine religions, Salman Rushdie has exposed himself to the anger and rage of the people ", he added.
The author is no longer on life support
The Friday morning attack on the stage of an amphitheater in the quiet town of Chautauqua near Lake Erie in upstate New York shocked the West but was hailed by Muslim extremists.
The 75-year-old British and American intellectual is no longer on life support and “the road to recovery has begun,” said his agent Andrew Wylie in a statement sent to the
Washington Post
.