Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s team and other U.S. officials condemned a pair of terrorist attacks carried out in Iran, but the show of condolences didn’t preclude criticism of the regime’s own aggression.
“The United States condemns the terrorist attacks in Tehran today,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Wednesday. “We express our condolences to the victims and their families, and send our thoughts and prayers to the people of Iran. The depravity of terrorism has no place in a peaceful, civilized world.”
The Islamic State took credit for the attacks, which targeted Iran’s Parliament building and a shrine to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the revolutionary leader who founded the nation’s Islamic regime. It was the first direct strike on Iran, a leading Shia Muslim power, by the Islamic State — which counts itself part of the Sunni Islam tradition.
The attack took place on the same day that the U.S. Senate is set to begin debate on legislation sanctioning Iran’s ballistic missile program and tightening sanctions pertaining to Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism.
“As Iranian authorities work to recover from this attack, I hope they understand the cost that they are inflicting on other countries as a sponsor of terrorism,” New York Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Wednesday. “This violence accomplishes nothing but pain and suffering, and will remain a stumbling block to security and stability.”
One senior Senate Democrat proposed a delay of the Iran sanctions bill debate as a goodwill gesture to Iran. “Instead of rubbing salt into a wound, just to say let’s wait a few days and consider what to do,” Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said Wednesday the Senate floor.
“If we were in their shoes, I think we would appreciate that gesture.”
But the Islamic State attack hardly eased U.S. frustration over Iranian aggression.
“I’ve long said that America’s quarrel is not with the people of Iran but with the Iranian regime,” Engel said. “No people anywhere should have to live under the threat of violent extremism — whether this attack or the terrorism supported by the regime in Tehran.”
