Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has accused Riyadh and Abu Dhabi of financing the perpetrators of the terror attack which killed at least 25 people and injured more than 60 others during a military parade in southern Iran on Saturday. Fars News Agency, a semi-official media resource affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, released and then pulled a video appearing to threaten the Saudi and UAE capitals with destruction in the aftermath of the terrorism in Ahvaz. The Twitter video, which features a compilation of clips, was copied by a few users before being deleted, and shows footage of the Ahvaz attack interlaced with footage of Iranian missiles taking off, along with maps of the cities of Iranian adversaries, including Jerusalem, targeted by sniper scopes. Tensions between Iran and its neighbors escalated after Iranian officials accused its neighbors, as well as the United States and Israel, of launching the act of terrorism in the country's south. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei described the terror attack as "a continuation of the plots of the regional states that are puppets of the United States," saying the goal of these plots was "to create insecurity in our dear country," and vowing to bring those responsible to justice. On Monday, Iran's Intelligence Ministry said that it had identified and arrested some 22 people involved in the attack. US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley rejected US involvement in the attack, advising Tehran to "look in the mirror," prompting President Hassan Rouhani to ask what "Americans [would] think if we were to say such a thing about the 9/11 terrorist attacks." Terrorists opened fire on military personnel and civilian onlookers during a military parade dedicated to the anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq War in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz on Saturday. The Saudi-linked Patriotic Arab Democratic Movement in Ahvaz has allegedly claimed responsibility. Daesh (ISIS/ISIL)* also claimed responsibility. At least 25 Iranian soldiers and civilians were killed. The five assailants were also killed. *A terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.<doc-sep>Iran's relations with its Gulf neighbors such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), along with the United States, are tense after a terrorist attack on a military parade in the Iranian city of Ahvaz on Sunday left at least 25 people dead. Both the "Islamic State" (IS) and Arab separatists groups in Iran have claimed responsibility for the attack. The Iranian government pointed fingers at its regional rivals, the Saudis and the UAE, as well as at the US for backing the attackers. "Based on reports, this cowardly act was done by the people who are rescued by the Americans when they are in trouble in Syria and Iraq, and are paid by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates," Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Monday on his official website. The same day the deputy head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard warned the US and Israel, a close American ally and Iran's perpetual enemy, on Monday that they should expect a "devastating response" from the Islamic Republic. So far Saudis have responded to Iran's announcement with silence while the UAE's foreign minister, Anwar Gargash, tweeted "formal incitement against the UAE from within Iran is unfortunate, and has escalated after the Ahvaz attack." "Tehran's allegations are baseless," he added. The US responded by saying that Iran "should look in the mirror." Members of Iran's military were among those injured in the terror attack in Ahvaz Terrorist attack on a national holiday Holly Dagres, an Iran expert and nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, told DW that the terrorist attack on the military parade was a "big deal" for the Iranians, as the celebration marked the start of the bloody Iran-Iraq war that lasted from 1980 to 1988. "This was essentially Iran's Memorial Day, with parades happening all around the country," she said. "In Ahvaz, the parade wasn't just attended by members of the army and the Iranian Revolutonary Guard, but also by veterans of the war, as well as families with young children." Dagres said that Iran's threats made against its Gulf neighbors and the US seem to be a case of saber rattling. "Tehran isn't in a position to make good on its threats in lieu of the pressure resulting from the United States reimposing sanctions," she said, adding that the goal is to show that "the Iranian government is in a position of strength after the Ahvaz terrorist attacks." Iran says Saudi Arabia, UAE support Arab separatists In Iran, there is a growing consensus that Arab separatist groups were likely behind the attack. Iranian Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi told the state news agency IRNA Monday that the "the terrorists have undergone training in two countries in the Persian Gulf" and that they were not from IS. Arab separatists in Iran allege that Iran's ethnic Persian majority discriminates against them. They are seeking independence for Khuzestan, a province bordering Iraq where Ahvaz is also located. The Iranian Foreign Ministry also believes that the UAE and its Gulf neighbors are harboring members of these movements. Arab separatists are currently pushing for the province of Khuzestan to split from Iran Although there is no concrete evidence that Arab separatist groups in Iran receive support from Saudi Arabia and Gulf nations such as the UAE, Dagres said that it could be possible. "Separatist movements, whether they be in Khuzetan or Sistan and Balochistan provinces, would gain a lot from the backing of a state such as Saudi Arabia," she noted. "State backing could provide them not just with funding and moral support, but international legitimacy." Military conflict not on the horizon, experts say Saudi Arabia and Iran maintain a fraught relationship; The two countries cut ties in January 2016. In the past, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has made threats towards Iran, warning of consequences should the Islamic Republic take military action or endanger the kingdom's national security. In a 2017 interview the Saudi prince went further, saying, "We are not waiting until there becomes a battle in Saudi Arabia, so we will work so that it becomes a battle for them in Iran and not in Saudi Arabia." Although experts say the attack in Ahvaz will ratchet up tension between the two nations, they view a consequent military conflict as unlikely. "I don't think that this will lead to a direct military conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia," Jens Heibach, a Saudi Arabia expert and research fellow at the GIGA Institute of Middle East Studies in Hamburg, told DW. "Saudi Arabia is already engaged in a costly military conflict, such as the war in Yemen. Plus the Saudi army would not be in a position to conventionally challenge Iran's military." Dagres also agreed with the notion that escalation between Tehran and Riyadh was unlikely, also pointing out that "any direct conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two regional powers, would draw in the world powers like the United States." Read more: Saudi Arabia vs. Iran: From 'twin pillars' to proxy wars Hezbollah, Lebanon's Iran-backed paramilitary organization Rise of Hezbollah Hezbollah, or Party of God, was conceived by Muslim clerics in the 1980s in response to the Israeli invasion of South Lebanon in 1982. The Shiite group has a political and military wing. Hezbollah, Lebanon's Iran-backed paramilitary organization National support against Israel Hezbollah emerged in the 1980s as an amalgamation of Shiite militias and played a major role in the Lebanese civil war. It used guerrilla warfare to drive Israeli forces out of South Lebanon — Israel withdrew in 2000. Israel and Hezbollah fought another war in 2006. Its defense of Lebanon against Israel had won it cross-sectarian support and acceptance in Lebanese society. Hezbollah, Lebanon's Iran-backed paramilitary organization Backed by Iran Since its creation, Hezbollah has received military, financial and political support from Iran and Syria. Today, Hezbollah's military wing is more powerful than Lebanon's own army and has become a major regional paramilitary force. Hezbollah, Lebanon's Iran-backed paramilitary organization Political apparatus Hezbollah turned its focus to politics following the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. It represents a large section of the Lebanese Shiite population and is allied with other sectarian groups, including Christians. Their political development has mostly come under Hassan Nasrallah (pictured), who became the group's leader in 1992. Hezbollah, Lebanon's Iran-backed paramilitary organization Armed wing Unlike other parties in Lebanon's multi-sided 1975-1990 civil war, Hezbollah did not disband its armed wing. Some Lebanese political groups, such as Prime Minister Saad Hariri's Future Movement, want Hezbollah to put down its arms. Hezbollah argues its militant wing is necessary to defend against Israel and other external threats. Hezbollah, Lebanon's Iran-backed paramilitary organization Terror group? A number of countries and bodies, including the United States, Israel, Canada and the Arab League, consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization. However, Australia and most of the European Union differentiate between its legitimate political activities and its militant wing. Hezbollah, Lebanon's Iran-backed paramilitary organization Hezbollah enters Syria's civil war Hezbollah has been one of the main backers of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the country's civil war. Its entrance into the war helped save Assad, one of its chief patrons; secured weapons supply routes from Syria and formed a buffer zone around Lebanon against Sunni militant groups it feared would take over Syria. As a result it has won considerable support from Shiite communities in Lebanon. Hezbollah, Lebanon's Iran-backed paramilitary organization Sectarianism Lebanon has long been at the center of regional power struggles, particularly between Saudi Arabia and Iran. However, Hezbollah's military and political ascendancy, as well as its intervention in Syria, have also helped stoke Sunni-Shiite sectarian tensions in Lebanon and across the region. Hezbollah, Lebanon's Iran-backed paramilitary organization Renewed conflict with Israel? Iran and Hezbollah have increased their political and military strength through the war in Syria. Israel views this as a threat and has carried out dozens of airstrikes on Iran/Hezbollah targets in Syria. Israel has vowed to not let Iran and Hezbollah create a permanent presence in Syria. There is growing concern of another war between Hezbollah and Israel that could draw in Iran. Author: Chase Winter<doc-sep>While President Donald Trump condemned Iran in his address Tuesday to the United Nations General Assembly, a small but influential group of countries gathered elsewhere in New York City in an attempt to rally support for an increasingly controversial cause among the international community. The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the ambassadors of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to Washington and the director of Israel's Mossad spy agency were among those who spoke alongside two of President Donald Trump's most senior officials at the 2018 United Against Nuclear Iran summit. These five U.S.-backed countries have accused Iran of interfering in their respective internal affairs and were among the few world powers to welcome Trump's decision to unilaterally abandon a 2015 multinational deal by which Iran agreed to denuclearize in exchange for a lifting of sanctions. At a time when traditional U.S. allies France, Germany and the U.K.–all of which also signed the nuclear deal–were working alongside China and Russia to counter U.S. sanctions against Iran, this Middle Eastern quintet has formed the core of foreign support for Trump's hardline stance against the revolutionary Shiite Muslim power. UAE ambassador to the U.S. Yousef al-Otaiba said Tuesday that the Iranian threat was existential. "We have paid the price more than anyone else in our part of the world," Otaiba said, sitting on a panel beside State Department director of policy planning Brian Hook and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed al-Jubeir. "The Gulf countries, Israel and the countries in the immediate vicinity are the ones at immediate risk." While the four Arabian Peninsula states do not recognize or maintain relations with Israel, their mutual enmity for the leadership in Tehran has forged an informal coalition. Otaiba himself reportedly met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a chance encounter in Washington in May, during which both men discussed their country's positions on Iran, according to the Associated Press. Bahrain, a majority-Shiite Muslim island state ruled by a Sunni Muslim monarchy with close ties to neighboring Saudi Arabia, went so far as to publicly back Israel's right to defend itself via a social media statement by its top diplomat in March. Having accused Iran of funding a Shiite Muslim insurgency in his country, Bahraini envoy to the U.S. Sheikh Abdullah bin Rashed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa reaffirmed this statement on Tuesday. "Some of you might recall our foreign minister tweeted a few months ago and said that every country has the right to defend itself, including Israel," Sheikh Abdullah said. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted a CIA-reinstalled absolute monarchy, Iran's growing presence in the region has created major concerns for Saudi Arabia and Israel. The staunch U.S. allies have been at odds since Israel's 1948 creation, which prompted the mass displacement of Palestinians and a series of Arab-Israeli wars, but reports have suggested that two have become increasingly close in the face of a common foe, especially as Riyadh's regional clout has fallen in Iran's favor in countries such as Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. "This is a regime the only way one can deal with them is by pressuring them and by forcing them to change," Jubeir told the conference Tuesday, accusing Tehran of sponsoring terrorism, cyber attacks, ethnic cleansing projects and of supporting a group of Zaidi Shiite Muslim rebels, known as Ansar Allah or the Houthi movement, which he said have fired up to 197 ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia. Jubeir left the event without taking questions and Israeli Mossad Director Yossi Cohen's comments at the following panel were off the record. As a Saudi-led coalition—which includes Bahrain and the UAE—bombs the Houthis in Yemen, Israeli warplanes blast alleged Iranian and pro-Iran positions fighting on behalf of resurgent government forces in Syria. Both Saudi Arabia and Israel have backed Syrian rebels attempting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Iran and Russia. Israeli officials have called for Saudi Arabia and its regional allies to openly work together with their country against Iran. Last month, a report surfaced suggesting Saudi Arabia acquired the Iron Dome missile defense system, which Israel uses to block rocket attacks from Palestinian and Lebanese groups sponsored by Iran. The Israeli Defense Ministry reportedly denied the report. While the true extent of their alignment remains the source of reports and speculation, Israel and Saudi Arabia's anti-Iran postures have been emboldened by the Trump administration. The U.S. leader followed up his fiery debut at the U.N. General Assembly last year with another verbal assault on Tehran, calling it a "corrupt dictatorship" whose leaders "sow chaos, death, and disruption." "They do not respect their neighbors or borders, or the sovereign rights of nations. Instead, Iran's leaders plunder the nation's resources to enrich themselves and to spread mayhem across the Middle East and far beyond," he said. "The Iranian people are rightly outraged that their leaders have embezzled billions of dollars from Iran's treasury, seized valuable portions of the economy, and looted the religious endowments, all to line their own pockets and send their proxies to wage war." Iran has been keen to point out the perceived growing ties between the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia and dismissed their accusations, accusing them of conspiring to destabilize the country and the region. The Iranian position has been reinforced by its success in tackling the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) alongside Iraqi government forces backed by the U.S. and Syrian government forces opposed by Washington. In Syria, Iran-backed militias have deployed alongside Syria's armed forces around Idlib, the final province under the control of an Islamist-led insurgency. France, Germany and the U.K. have joined the U.S. in cautioning Syria and its Iranian and Russian allies from pursuing an all-out offensive in Idlib, but have split with the Trump administration on punishing Iran economically for its involvement in the Middle East and development of ballistic missiles. France, the EU, Germany and the U.K. have been deeply critical of the U.S. decision to leave the Iran deal, which came after the International Atomic Energy Agency affirmed Tehran's adherence on multiple occasions and followed U.S. exits from other international agreements. A day before Trump's U.N. address and the United Against Nuclear Iran conference, the foreign ministers of these transatlantic powers met with their Russian, Chinese and Iranian counterparts to discuss saving a nuclear deal that no longer protects the beleaguered Iranian economy from heavy U.S. sanctions. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced Monday alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that China, the EU, France, Germany, Russia and the U.K. would establish an alternative payment to dodge U.S. sanctions against companies doing business with Iran. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas previously made a similar suggestion last month, arguing that Europe had to step up and "counterbalance" the U.S. when it "crosses red lines." Experts have suggested that such a move could have a major impact on U.S. global influence, as China and Russia were vying with the West for international authority and European powers were growing frustrated with the direction of Trump's foreign policy. "The United States makes its decisions based on its national security interests, other parties to the plan of action need to make their decisions based on the capacities of their nations," Hook told the summit Tuesday when asked about the positions of China, the EU, France, Germany, Russia and the U.K.<doc-sep>
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has issued a stark warning to 'bully' US America will “regret choosing the wrong path” leader Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday after an attack on an Iranian military parade killed dozens people, including 12 members of the elite Revolutionary Guards. Belittling Western-allied Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia as a “small puppet country”, he accused the US of provoking them and giving them “the necessary capabilities.” Iran was ready to confront the United States and its Gulf Arab allies, a day after the mass execution during a military parade, which left 25 dead and dozens injured. Speaking before leaving Tehran to attend the annual UN General Assembly in New York, Rouhani accused US-backed Gulf Arab states of providing financial and military support for anti-government ethnic Arab groups in Iran. Related articles Iran using 'GHOST TANKERS' to keep oil money coming in Iran on brink of ‘REVOLUTION’ in wake of US sanctions Rouhani, who engineered Iran's 2015 nuclear deal that ushered in a cautious detente with Washington before tensions resurged with President Donald Trump's decision in May to quit the accord, said: "America is acting like a bully towards the rest of the world...and thinks it can act based on brute force. "But our people will resist and the government is ready to confront America. We will overcome this situation (sanctions) and America will regret choosing the wrong path." The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) has been the sword and shield of Shi'ite clerical rule in Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. It answers to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and runs its own business empire in Iran, a major oil producer that has been relatively stable compared with Arab states that have grappled with unrest since uprisings in 2011. Irani soldiers and a Shiite Muslim cleric at the scene of an attack on a military parade Since pulling out of the big powers' nuclear pact with Iran, Trump has reimposed U.S. sanctions aimed at isolating Tehran and forcing it to negotiate tougher curbs on both its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. Iran has ruled this out. Rouhani said: "America wants to cause chaos and unrest in our country so that it can return to this country, but these are unreal fantasies and they will never achieve their goals." Shi'ite Iran is at odds with Western-allied Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia for predominance in the Middle East. The two regional powers back opposing sides in the conflicts in Yemen and Syria as well as rival political groups in Iraq and Lebanon. Rouhani said: "The small puppet countries in the region are backed by America, and the United States is provoking them and giving them the necessary capabilities." There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia on Rouhani's allegations. The shooting attack on the military parade in the southwestern city of Ahvaz was one of the worst ever against the Guards - Iran's most powerful military force - and is bound to ratchet up tensions with Saudi Arabia. An anti-America slogan leads military vehicles during the annual military parade in Iran