Iran leaders: US the 'international version of Islamic State'; Trump remarks a 'disgrace'

Tehran: Iranian leaders on Friday accused the United States and Saudi Arabia of supporting the Islamic State-claimed dual attacks that killed 17 people in Tehran this week. [caption id=“attachment_3436676” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Iran Supreme Leader Ayotallah Ali Khameini. Leader.ir[/caption] The country’s Supreme Leader said the attacks will add to the hatred that Iranians harbor toward the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. In a condolence message ahead of a funeral for the victims, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the attack “will not damage the Iranian nation’s determination and the obvious result is nothing except an increase in hate for the governments of the United States and their stooges in the region like Saudi (Arabia),” state media reported. On Thursday, Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said investigators were working to determine whether Saudi Arabia had a role Wednesday’s attacks but said it was too soon to say if that was the case. During the funeral, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani called the US the “international” version of the Islamic State group and said Washington had exchanged democracy for money, a reference to a recent huge arms deal between the US and Saudi Arabia. State TV broadcasted the ceremony live. He said anti-Iranian remarks by Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister and U.S. President Donald Trump are a “matter of disgrace” for them. Larijani also criticised a Wednesday decision by the U.S. Senate to move forward on a new set of sanctions against Iran, including its elite Revolutionary Guards, a move that came on the same day as the Tehran attacks. Also on Friday, police said two more suspects were detained in the western part of the country bring the number to eight from six on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry in a statement put the number of wounded at 52, up from 40. The Intelligence Ministry said its forces stormed several “safe houses” linked to the group in the country’s northwest, according to state television. Reportedly two guards, 10 government staffers and five civilians were killed in the attacks that simultaneously targeted the country’s parliament and shrine of late founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.