Iran denies involvement in Salman Rushdie attack, blames writer himself
- Iran foreign ministry spokesman denied any link with the attacker of British author Salman Rushdie
- Rushdie, 75, was left on a ventilator with multiple stab wounds after he was attacked at a literary event in New York
An Iranian government official denied on Monday that Tehran was involved in the assault on author Salman Rushdie, in remarks that were the country’s first public comments on the attack.
The comments by Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry, came more than two days after the attack on Rushdie in New York state.
However, Iran has denied carrying out other operations abroad targeting dissidents in the years since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, despite prosecutors and Western governments attributing such attacks to Tehran.
“We, in the incident of the attack on Salman Rushdie in the US, do not consider that anyone deserves blame and accusations except him and his supporters,” Kanaani said. “Nobody has right to accuse Iran in this regard.”
Rushdie, 75, was stabbed on Friday while attending an event in western New York. He suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye, his agent said. He is likely to lose the injured eye but has been taken off a ventilator and is “on the road to recovery”.
A 24-year-old man, Hadi Matar, has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the attack.