Iran Victim, Not Backer of Terrorism

A host of terrorist attacks on the Iranian officials indicate that the Islamic Republic has been always the victim of terrorism, President Hassan Rouhani said, rejecting the allegations raised by certain “aggressive” countries that seek to portray Iran as a supporter of terrorism.

President Rouhani on Tuesday held a meeting with families of the Iranian diplomats assassinated by the Taliban fighters in Afghanistan’s Mazar-i-Sharif back in 1998.
He said the killing of the 10 Iranian diplomats in Mazar-i-Sharif and many other attacks on Iran’s diplomatic missions prove that “the Islamic Republic of Iran is an anti-terrorism establishment.”
“Contrary to what some aggressive countries claim that Iran supports terrorism, the country has been victim of terrorism from the first day (after Islamic Revolution in 1979),” the president added.
Naming some senior Iranian officials assassinated by the terrorist groups since 1979, President Rouhani noted that terrorist are still acting against the Iranian nation.
“We, in turn, are always fighting terrorism and terrorists,” he stressed.
When Iran was being hit by the terrorist incidents, no one could think that such threat might plague other parts of the world as well, the president added, blaming the current acts of terrorism in many countries on the support provided by “the Zionists and certain Western countries.”
On August 8, 1998, Taliban militants killed 10 Iranian diplomats and an Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) correspondent in Mazar-i-Sharif.