Iran denies involvement nevertheless justifies Salman Rushdie attack

Iran denies involvement nevertheless justifies Salman Rushdie attack

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian management official denied on Monday that Tehran was associated accompanied by inside the assault on author Salman Rushdie, though he justified the stabbing inside remarks that represented the Islamic Republic's earliest condition comments on the attack.

The comments by Nasser Kanaani, the spokesperson of Iran's Foreign Ministry, came additional than place of set of two days following the assault on Rushdie inside New York. The author has now been taken off a ventilator accompanied by every one one other accompanied by is "on the main highway to recovery," according to his agent.

However, Iran has denied carrying not here other operations overseas targeting dissidents inside the years since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution, inside malice of prosecutors accompanied by every one one other accompanied by Western governments attributing such attacks spine to Tehran. And while Iran hasn't focused on the author inside recent years, a decades-old fatwa demanding his killing still stands.

"Regarding the assault opposed to Salman Rushdie inside America, we don't exist convinced by concerning anyone deserving reproach, clasp inside ask in remittance of or flat condemnation, except for (Rushdie) himself accompanied by every one one other accompanied by his supporters," Kanaani said.

"In this regard, no indeed indeed one tin clasp inside ask in remittance of the Islamic Republic of Iran," he added. "We exist convinced by that the insults made accompanied by every one one other accompanied by the support he received was an offend opposed to followers of all religions."

Rushdie, 75, was stabbed Friday while attending an event inside western New York. He suffered a damaged liver accompanied by every one one other accompanied by severed nerves inside an upper limb accompanied by every one one other accompanied by an eye, his agent Andrew Wylie said. Rushdie was probable to mislay the injured eye.

His assailant, 24-year-old Hadi Matar, has pleaded not culpable to charges stemming from the assault into with every one other accompanied by not here of his lawyer.

Rushdie has for additional than 30 years faced demise threats for "The Satanic Verses." Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had issued a fatwa, or Islamic edict, demanding his death. A semiofficial Iranian footing had place up a bounty of over $3 million for the author, though it has yet to provide some remark on the attack.

Police inside New York have offered no indeed indeed motive yet for the attack, though District Attorney Jason Schmidt alluded to the bounty on Rushdie inside arguing opposed to bail all over a hearing Saturday.

"Even if this court of rules and regulations of rules with every one other accompanied by regulations were to place a million dollars bail, we stand a chance that bail could exist met," Schmidt said.

Matar was born inside the United States to parents who emigrated from Yaroun inside southern Lebanon near the Israeli border, according to the village's mayor. Flags of the Iranian-backed Shiite militant category Hezbollah, down accompanied by portraits of Hezbollah accompanied by every one one other accompanied by Iranian leaders, hang across the village. Israel excessively has bombarded Hezbollah positions near there inside the past.

In Yaroun, village records show Matar holds Lebanese citizenship accompanied by every one one other accompanied by is identified while a Shiite, an official there said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity not here of safety concerns, said Matar's father still lives there nevertheless has been inside seclusion since the attack.

In his remarks Monday, Kanaani added that Iran did not "have some other details additional than what the American media has reported." He excessively implied that Rushdie brought the assault on himself.

"Salman Rushdie exposed himself to well liked annoyance accompanied by every one one other accompanied by fury into with every one other accompanied by not here of insulting the sacredness of Islam accompanied by every one one other accompanied by crossing the scarlet lines of over 1.5 billion Muslims accompanied by every one one other accompanied by excessively scarlet lines of followers of all divine religions," Kanaani said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, while not unswerving blaming Tehran for the assault on Rushdie, made a point to allude to Iran inside a statement early Monday praising the writer's efforts inside supporting freedom of utterance accompanied by every one one other accompanied by religion.

"Iranian condition institutions have incited violence opposed to Rushdie for generations, accompanied by every one one other accompanied by state-affiliated media not lengthy ago gloated concerning the try on his life," Blinken said. "This is despicable."

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul condemned the assault on Rushdie at a speech Sunday, saying that "a male accompanied by a cutting tool cannot silence a male accompanied by a pen."

Khomeini, inside poverty-stricken health inside the last year of his actuality following the grinding, stalemated 1980s Iran-Iraq war had decimated the country's economy, issued the fatwa on Rushdie inside 1989. The Islamic edict came amid a brutal uproar inside the Muslim world over the novel, which some viewed while blasphemously making suggestions concerning the Prophet Muhammad's life.

While fatwas tin exist revised or revoked, Iran's contemporaneous Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — who took over following Khomeini — has never done so. As not lengthy ago while February 2017, Khamenei said: "The decree is while Imam Khomeini issued."

Since 1979, Iran has targeted dissidents overseas inside attacks. Tensions accompanied by the West — mostly the United States — have spiked since then-President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled America not here of Iran's nuclear deal accompanied by world powers inside 2018.

A Trump-ordered drone strike killed a top Iranian Revolutionary Guard general inside 2020, further fueling those tensions.

Last week, the U.S. charged a Guard subscriber inside absentia for allegedly plotting to kill one-time Trump counsellor accompanied by every one one other accompanied by Iran hawk John Bolton. Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accompanied by every one one other accompanied by an aide are under 24-hour safety over alleged threats from Iran.

Meanwhile, U.S. prosecutors speak Iran tried to kidnap inside 2021 an Iranian opposition activist accompanied by every one one other accompanied by author living inside New York. In recent days, a male accompanied by an assault rummage was arrested near her home.

Other denials from the Foreign Ministry have included Tehran's transfer of weapons to Yemen's Houthi rebels amid that country's lengthy secular war. Independent experts, Western nations accompanied by every one one other accompanied by U.N. experts have traced weapon components spine to Iran.

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Associated Press author Bassem Mroue inside Beirut contributed to this report.

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Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Iran denies involvement nevertheless justifies Salman Rushdie attack