Iran’s parliament, which came under a terror attack recently, is hosting a funeral ceremony for the victims of the incident, and another concomitant one, which targeted Imam Khomeini’s Mausoleum.
Iran hit out at U.S. and Saudi Arabia as tens of thousands attended the funerals on Friday for those slain in the first attacks in Iran claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
Large groups of people are taking part in the ceremony, chanting slogans against Saudi Arabia, the US and Israel, whom they blame for supporting terrorism.
The country's Supreme Leader said the attacks will add to the hatred that Iranians harbour toward the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
"Such acts will have no other result than to reinforce hatred for the US government and its agents in the region, like the Saudi [Arabia]," supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote in a message of condolence.
At a ceremony held in parliament, attended by newly re-elected moderate President Hassan Rouhani, speaker Ali Larijani also slammed Washington and Riyadh. He called Saudi Arabia "a tribal state very far from anything like a democracy", and denounced US sanctions against Iran.
The US "knows that the Revolutionary Guard and its Quds force are the most important regional forces fighting terrorists", Larijani said.
At least 17 people were killed and more than 50 injured in Tehran on Wednesday, when gunmen attacked Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) and the Mausoleum of the late Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini.
Iran’s Intelligence Ministry announces that 41 members of Islamic State jihadist group have been arrested following recent twin terrorist attacks in Tehran.
Following a series of sophisticated intelligence operations and with the cooperation of the families of some of the terrorists, 48 elements of Daesh [Islamic State] Wahhabi group were identified and arrested before conducting any act of terror, the ministry said in a statement as quoted by Iranian media outlet Press TV.
On Thursday, 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.
